US President Donald Trump has warned that he could impose tariffs on European countries, including Denmark, to pressure for the annexation of Greenland on national security grounds. The threat follows a White House meeting between US and Danish officials, where Trump's territorial ambitions were rejected. Denmark and Greenland have deemed the statements totally unacceptable.
In a speech on rural health investments in the United States, Donald Trump recounted how he threatened France and Germany with 25% tariffs if they did not raise drug prices. According to Trump, he called French President Emmanuel Macron and told him: “You have to raise the prices of the medicines,” threatening tariffs if he did not.
He then extended this tactic to the dispute over Greenland, a Danish-dependent territory and NATO ally. “I might impose a tariff on countries that do not accept the Greenland thing, because we need Greenland for national security. So I might do it,” Trump stated.
The threat comes 24 hours after a White House meeting between Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Denmark and Greenland's foreign affairs officials, Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Vivian Motzfeldt. Both rejected Trump's annexation ambitions.
In a press conference afterward in front of the Danish embassy in Washington DC, Rasmussen stated: “The Kingdom of Denmark still believes that the long-term security of Greenland can also be guaranteed within the current framework, the 1951 agreement on the defense of Greenland, as well as the NATO Treaty.” He added: “For us, ideas that do not respect the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark and the right to self-determination of the Greenlandic people are, of course, totally unacceptable and, therefore, we still have a fundamental disagreement, but we also agree to disagree and, consequently, we will continue to dialogue”.
Motzfeldt interjected: “I think it is very important to repeat how important it is for us to strengthen our cooperation with the United States, but that does not mean that we want to be property of the United States”.
Countries such as France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the Netherlands are mobilizing and have sent or announced the sending of troops to Greenland in response to the tension.
