European politicians had little rest this weekend after Donald Trump’s announcement on Saturday that he would be imposing punitive tariffs on the eight countries that had sent troops to Greenland last week. From 1 February, 10 per cent tariffs will be slapped on goods entering the United States from Britain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland. They had, Trump said, ‘journeyed to Greenland for purposes unknown’ and he accused them of playing a ‘very dangerous game’.

Denmark has stated that Greenland is not for sale; Trump is unlikely to back down

By sending troops to Greenland on Thursday, those eight countries had only done what Trump implied he had expected of them. Since before his return to the White House last year, the American president has lamented the neglected state of Greenlandic security. In recent weeks, Trump has claimed that the island’s defences amount to ‘two dogsleds as protection, one added recently’.

Since Christmas, Trump has become more vocal about his desire to annex Greenland to the US, claiming it forms a crucial component of his ‘Golden Dome’ satellite defence system. He has repeatedly said that China and Russia also have their sights set on the island and that ships and submarines belonging to both countries are ‘swarming’ off Greenland’s coasts – something experts have found little evidence of. Only America, Trump has claimed, is capable of defending the island. As such, if by 1 June, a deal is not reached ‘for the complete and total purchase of Greenland’ between Denmark and the US, the tariffs imposed on the eight nations who sent troops to the island will increase to 25 per cent.

This deterioration in the relationship between........

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