Trump announces new European tariffs in Greenland standoff; allies outraged

By Shawn Mccreesh, Ana Swanson and Jeanna Smialek

PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump announced in a social media post Saturday (17) morning his latest strategy to get control of Greenland: He is slapping new tariffs on a bloc of European nations until they come to the negotiating table to sell Greenland.

Greenland is a territory of Denmark, which will be hit with a 10% tariff on all goods sent to the United States beginning Feb. 1, Trump wrote in a social media post. Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, Britain, the Netherlands and Finland, fellow NATO members that have expressed solidarity with Denmark in its refusal to yield to Trump’s demands, will also be subject to the 10% tariff. If those nations do not relent, he added, the rate will increase to 25% on June 1, “until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland”.

The leaders of Europe reacted Saturday (17) with unified outrage to Trump’s latest coercions on the massive island in the North Atlantic. So, too, did lawmakers in Washington, including some members of the president’s own party. And the abrupt announcement of new tariffs seemed to throw a trade deal Trump had struck with the European Union into serious doubt.

In his post, Trump argued that the United States needed to control Greenland as a bulwark against Chinese and Russian ambitions in the Arctic, although the United States already has the right to expand its military presence in Greenland under a 1951 agreement with Denmark.

The president’s new threat comes as the Supreme Court weighs overturning the legal authority that the president would likely use to impose these tariffs. The court is set to rule in the coming weeks on Trump’s use of an emergency law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which the president has used to threaten tariffs at a whim against numerous countries over the past year.

If the court rules against Trump, he may not be able to impose tariffs like this.

The United States currently charges a 10% tariff on British imports and a 15% tariff on imports from the European Union, after striking limited trade deals with both governments last year. The new tariffs would presumably be imposed on top of that, and it remains to be seen how other trading partners would respond. Tariffs are paid by importers, not by the products’ country of origin, with the costs often passed on to American consumers.

On Friday (16), during a health care event at the White House, Trump mused publicly about doing something like this. “I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland,” he said, almost parenthetically.

A day later, the 445-word post he put up was striking in its language about US allies. It reiterated the worldview Trump has espoused for decades, which holds that the United States has been getting ripped off and that payback has been a long time coming.

“We have subsidized Denmark, and all of the Countries of the European Union, and others, for many years by not charging them Tariffs, or any other forms of remuneration,” he wrote. “Now, after Centuries, it is time for Denmark to give back — World Peace is at stake!”

He wrote about “all that we have done for them, including maximum protection, over so many decades.”

The post and its threat of new tariffs were a marked escalation in Trump’s pressure campaign, and European leaders reacted swiftly on Saturday.

French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on social media, “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”.

He added that “tariff threats are unacceptable” and that “Europeans will respond in a united and coordinated manner should they be confirmed. We will ensure that European sovereignty is upheld”.

The Swedish prime minister weighed in with a furious response, saying, “We won’t allow ourselves to be blackmailed. Denmark and Greenland alone decide questions that affect Denmark and Greenland”.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement that “applying tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of NATO allies is completely wrong,” adding, “We will of course be pursuing this directly with the US administration”.

The leaders of Britain’s main opposition parties were unanimous in their condemnation of Saturday’s announcement. The Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, said that Trump was “completely wrong” and that the tariffs were a “terrible idea” for both the United States and Britain.

Nigel Farage, an ally of Trump whose populist right-wing Reform UK party leads Britain’s political polls, made a rare statement in opposition to the president’s policies on social media.

“We don’t always agree with the US government, and in this case, we certainly don’t. These tariffs will hurt us,” he wrote.

Lukas A. Lausen, the director of global trade at the Danish Confederation of Industry, said the tariffs would increase prices and cost jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.

This past week, a delegation from Denmark and Greenland came to Washington to meet with officials from the Trump administration, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Little was achieved.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in a statement Saturday that Trump’s social media post “comes as a surprise” and that Denmark was in “close contact with the European Commission and our other partners on the issue.”

Trump’s post startled even Republicans in Washington, some of whom reacted publicly on Saturday.

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said in a social media post that the move was “foolish policy” and he likened it to something Russian President Vladimir Putin would do. He added in an interview with CNN, “I feel like it’s incumbent on folks like me to speak up and say these threats and bullying of an ally are wrong.”

He also predicted that if Trump used military force to seize Greenland, the president would lose significant support from his own base. “Just on the weird chance that he’s serious about invading Greenland, I want to let him know it’ll probably be the end of his presidency,” he said. “Most Republicans know this is immoral and wrong, and we’re going to stand up against it.”

Several European countries, including France, sent troops to Greenland to take part in military exercises alongside Danish forces this past week — a development that underscored how serious the situation had become.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, wrote on social media Saturday that the new tariffs were “bad for America, bad for American businesses, and bad for America’s allies. It’s great for Putin, Xi and other adversaries who want to see NATO divided”.

He added that the continued coercion “to seize territory of an ally is beyond stupid” and that it “hurts the legacy of President Trump and undercuts all the work he has done to strengthen the NATO alliance over the years”.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, called the new tariffs in a social media post “unnecessary, punitive, and a profound mistake” that would only “push our core European allies further away while doing nothing to advance US national security”.

Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at Bruegel, a think tank in Brussels, said new tariffs would probably kill a previously negotiated deal for 15% tariffs that Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Union’s executive arm, struck in Turnberry, Scotland, last year.

“It means the end of the Turnberry deal, and we’re in a full-blown trade war,” he said. “We either fight a trade war, or we’re in a real war.”

He said Europeans would be hoping for the Supreme Court to rule sooner rather than later on whether Trump’s tariffs are lawful.

“Maybe this will focus minds in the Supreme Court,” he said.

Von der Leyen and her colleagues tried to defuse the situation, emphasizing the need for continued dialogue — even as they warned that tariffs would “undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral”.

“The pre-coordinated Danish exercise, conducted with allies, responds to the need to strengthen Arctic security and poses no threat to anyone,” von der Leyen wrote in a post on social media, one that was echoed by her colleague, António Costa, president of the European Council.

“The EU stands in full solidarity with Denmark and the people of Greenland,” he wrote. “Dialogue remains essential, and we are committed to building on the process begun already last week between the Kingdom of Denmark and the US.”

-New York Times