United States President Donald Trump has doubled down on his bid to take over Greenland earlier than his look on the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, Switzerland, by slamming key allies.
Trump shared non-public textual content messages from French President Emmanuel Macron and NATO chief Mark Rutte and justified his aggressive posture over the Arctic island with a swipe at the UK’s determination to cede its final African colony to Mauritius.
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The US president’s flurry of Greenland-focused social media posts on Tuesday noticed him accuse the UK of “GREAT STUPIDITY” for its determination to cede sovereignty over the Indian Ocean archipelago of Chagos, which is dwelling to a key British-American navy base on Diego Garcia atoll, to Mauritius.
The UK’s transfer adopted Mauritius’s authorized victory in a landmark decolonisation case on the Worldwide Court docket of Justice seven years in the past after it had been strong-armed by the UK into promoting the colonial territory for 3 million kilos (as we speak price $4m) in change for its independence in 1968. Underneath a bilateral deal signed in 2025, the UK retains management of the airbase on a long-term lease.
Trump, who had beforehand appeared to again the UK’s try to proper what’s extensively perceived as a colonial unsuitable beneath the rules-based worldwide order, lashed out on the UK’s “act of whole weak point”, which he mentioned would have been famous by China and Russia.
“These are Worldwide Powers who solely acknowledge STRENGTH, which is why america of America, beneath my management, is now, after just one 12 months, revered like by no means earlier than,” the US president posted. “The UK giving freely extraordinarily vital land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is one other in a really lengthy line of Nationwide Safety explanation why Greenland must be acquired.”
A UK authorities spokesperson mentioned in an announcement: “We acted as a result of the bottom on Diego Garcia was beneath menace after court docket choices undermined our place and would have prevented it working as meant in future.” The bilateral treaty has but to be ratified by the UK Parliament.
Trump’s newly voiced opposition to the switch of the archipelago might be applauded not solely by right-wing opponents of the transfer within the UK but in addition by some Chagos islanders and their descendants who oppose the switch of their homeland to Mauritius.
Trump assaults Macron
Trump’s fusillade got here earlier than his go to to the World Financial Discussion board on Wednesday as Europe weighs countermeasures after he promised to impose extra tariffs on eight European nations – Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland – in a bid to strain them over Greenland.
Maintaining the push, Trump posted a screenshot of a message from Macron, who supplied to arrange a Group of Seven assembly in Paris on Thursday afternoon to debate disagreements over Greenland with the participation of Ukraine, Denmark, Syria and Russia on the sidelines.
“My good friend, we’re fully aligned on Syria. We will do nice issues in Iran. I don’t perceive what you might be doing in Greenland,” Macron mentioned in his message, which was confirmed as genuine by a supply near Macron on Tuesday, in line with the Reuters information company.
Upping the ante, Trump threatened to hit French wine and champagne with 200 p.c tariffs in an obvious bid to persuade a reluctant Macron into becoming a member of his “board of peace” initiative, which is being rolled out in Gaza with a view to increasing its remit to different conflicts, elevating questions over the longer term position of the United Nations.
A supply near Macron mentioned the French president meant to say no the invitation to affix.
When requested about Macron’s stance on Monday, Trump replied: “Did he say that? Properly, no person needs him as a result of he might be out of workplace very quickly.”
“I’ll put a 200 p.c tariff on his wines and champagnes, and he’ll be part of, however he doesn’t have to affix,” Trump was quoted by the information company AFP as saying.
A supply near Macron, who should step down as president in 2027 due to time period limits, advised AFP on Tuesday that Trump’s threats to impose the tariffs had been “unacceptable” and “ineffective”.
Setting the scene for Davos, Trump additionally reported on social media that he had “an excellent phone name” with NATO Secretary-Normal Mark Rutte and he had agreed to a gathering on Greenland.
“As I expressed to everybody, very plainly, Greenland is crucial for Nationwide and World Safety. There will be no going again – On that, everybody agrees!” he posted.
Afterward Tuesday, Trump went on to publish a screenshot of what he mentioned was a textual content message from Rutte, who final 12 months referred to the US president as “daddy”. The screenshot made a flattering supply to “spotlight your work” in Syria, Gaza and Ukraine whereas highlighting NATO’s dedication to “discovering a method ahead on Greenland”.
‘We now have to have it’
Trump’s posts on Tuesday additionally included a doctored picture of him planting the US flag subsequent to an indication studying “Greenland, US Territory, Est. 2026”.
Requested by reporters on Monday what he deliberate to say to European leaders in Davos about his Greenland plan, Trump mentioned: “I don’t suppose they’re going to push again an excessive amount of. Look, we have now to have it.”
Earlier, he had linked his aggressive stance to final 12 months’s determination to not award him the Nobel Peace Prize he deeply coveted, telling Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Retailer that he not felt “an obligation to suppose purely of Peace” in a textual content message launched on Monday.
Retailer mentioned he would change his schedule to attend the World Financial Discussion board in Davos on Wednesday and Thursday, overlapping with Trump’s deliberate look.
European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen referred to as Trump’s deliberate tariffs over Greenland “a mistake particularly between long-standing allies” and vowed that Europe’s response can be “unflinching, united and proportional”.
“Plunging us right into a downward spiral would solely assist the very adversaries we’re each so dedicated to preserving out of the strategic panorama,” mentioned von der Leyen in a keynote speech at Davos.
She mentioned that the European Union was engaged on a “large European funding surge” in Greenland, pledging to “work with america and all companions on wider Arctic safety”.
“That is clearly in our shared curiosity,” she mentioned.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz mentioned he would attempt to meet Trump on Wednesday, including {that a} commerce dispute was not needed, however “if we’re confronted with tariffs that we think about unreasonable, then we’re able to responding.”
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent advised reporters in Davos it will be “very unwise” for European governments to retaliate.
“I feel it’s an entire canard that the president might be doing this due to the Nobel Prize. The president is taking a look at Greenland as a strategic asset for america,” he mentioned.
EU leaders are to convene in Brussels on Thursday night for an emergency summit after Trump’s threats to impose new tariffs on six of its members.
