Trump’s threat sets up a potentially dangerous test of US partnerships in Europe. Several European countries have sent troops to Greenland in recent days, saying they are there for Arctic security training. Trump’s announcement came on Saturday as thousands of Greenlanders were wrapping up a protest outside the US Consulate in the capital, Nuuk.
The Republican president appeared to indicate that he was using the tariffs as leverage to force talks with Denmark and other European countries over the status of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark that he regards as critical to US national security. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland would face the tariff.
There are immediate questions about how the White House could try to implement the tariffs because the EU is a single economic zone in terms of trading, according to a European diplomat who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. It was unclear, too, how Trump could act under US law, though he could cite emergency economic powers that are currently subject to a US Supreme Court challenge.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said China and Russia will benefit from the divisions between the US and Europe. She added in a post on social media: “If Greenland’s security is at risk, we can address this inside NATO. Tariffs risk making Europe and the United States poorer and undermine our shared prosperity.”
Trump’s move also was panned domestically.
US Senator Mark Kelly, a former US Navy pilot and Democrat who represents Arizona, posted that Trump’s threatened tariffs on US allies would make Americans “pay more to try to get territory we don’t need”.
“Troops from European countries are arriving in Greenland to defend the territory from us. Let that sink in,” he wrote on social media. “The damage this President is doing to our reputation and our relationships is growing, making us less safe. If something doesn’t change we will be on our own with adversaries and enemies in every direction.”
‘Risk a dangerous downward spiral’
Norway and the UK are not part of the 27-member EU, which operates as a single economic zone in terms of trading. It was not immediately clear if Trump’s tariffs would impact the entire bloc. EU envoys scheduled emergency talks for Sunday evening to determine a potential response.
António Costa, president of the European Council, and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, pledged to continue their full solidarity with Denmark and Greenland.
“Tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. Europe will remain united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty,” they wrote in a joint statement.
The tariff announcement even drew blowback from Trump’s populist allies in Europe.
Italy’s right-wing Premier Giorgia Meloni, considered one of Trump’s closest allies on the continent, said on Sunday she had spoken to him about the tariffs, which she described as “a mistake”.
The deployment to Greenland of small numbers of troops by some European countries was misunderstood by Washington, Meloni told reporters during a two-day visit to South Korea. She said the deployment was not a move against the US but aimed to provide security against “other actors” that she didn’t name.
Jordan Bardella, president of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party in France and also a European Parliament politician, posted that the EU should suspend last year’s tariff deal with the US, describing Trump’s threats as “commercial blackmail”.
Trump also achieved the rare feat of uniting Britain’s main political parties — including the hard-right Reform UK party — all of whom criticised the tariff threat.
“We don’t always agree with the US government and in this case we certainly don’t. These tariffs will hurt us,” Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, a longtime champion and ally of Trump, wrote on social media. He stopped short of criticising Trump’s designs on Greenland.
Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who leads the centre-left Labour Party, said the tariffs announcement was “completely wrong” and his government would “be pursuing this directly with the US administration”.
