President Donald Trump announced Saturday that he would impose new tariffs on several European nations and NATO allies in response to their opposition to his efforts to obtain Greenland as part of the United States.
A 10 percent tariff on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland will go into effect on Feb. 1, and increase to 25 percent on June 1, Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
He explicitly linked the tariffs to his ambition to acquire the self-governing Danish territory, saying they would remain in place “until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.”
Trump has pursued Greenland since returning to the White House last year, but his threats to take over the Arctic island have intensified since American military operations in Venezuela. The White House has not ruled out military action to acquire Greenland, though Secretary of State Marco Rubio has sought to downplay that possibility.
Danish and Greenlandic officials have vehemently opposed any U.S. takeover, and European leaders have similarly rejected it. Trump now appears to be seeking to move the needle on Greenland by exerting economic pressure — a threat that has not been received well so far, both abroad and at home.
In a post on X, French President Emmanuel Macron called Trump’s Greenland pressure campaign “unacceptable,” and likened the ambitions to strong-arm Europe over the matter to Russia’s efforts to seize Ukraine.
“No intimidation or threat will influence us — neither in Ukraine, nor in Greenland, nor anywhere else in the world when we are confronted with such situations,” Macron said.
The acquisition of the self-governing territory is unpopular domestically too, including among Republicans. On Friday, a bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers traveled to Denmark to assure leaders there that there is no congressional support for military action to seize the island. One of those senators, Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said on Saturday that imposing tariffs on European allies is “bad for America.”
“The fact that a small handful of ‘advisors’ are actively pushing for coercive action to seize territory of an ally is beyond stupid,” Tillis said.
In his Truth Social post Saturday, Trump portrayed the U.S. acquisition of Greenland as an existential necessity. Trump said that Denmark and other countries “have put a level of risk in play” by opposing the idea, and suggested that Denmark cannot protect the territory from China and Russia.
“Therefore, it is imperative that, in order to protect Global Peace and Security, strong measures be taken so that this potentially perilous situation end quickly, and without question,” Trump wrote, adding that the U.S. is “open to negotiation with Denmark and/or any of these Countries that have put so much at risk.”
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