Trump threatens tariffs on 8 European countries for opposing Greenland takeover |
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) — US President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would charge a 10 percent import tax starting in February on goods from eight European nations because of their opposition to American control of Greenland, setting up a potentially dangerous test of US partnerships in Europe.
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland would face the tariff, Trump said in a social media post while at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The rate would climb to 25% on June 1 if no deal was in place for “the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland” by the United States, he said.
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.
“The United States of America is immediately open to negotiation with Denmark and/or any of these Countries that have put so much at risk, despite all that we have done for them,” Trump said on Truth Social.
The tariff threat could mark a problematic rupture between Trump and America’s longtime NATO partners, further straining an alliance that dates to 1949 and provides a collective degree of security to Europe and North America. Trump has repeatedly tried to use trade penalties to bend allies and rivals alike to his will, generating investment commitments from some nations and pushback from others, notably China.
Trump is scheduled to travel on Tuesday to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he likely will run into the European leaders he just threatened with tariffs that would start in little more than two weeks.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said the tariff threats were a “surprise” given the “constructive meeting” with top US officials this week in Washington.
To British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump’s announcement was “completely wrong” and that his country’s position is that Greenland is part of Denmark.
French President Emmanuel Macron pushed back against Trump in a social media post that seemed to equate the threat to Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s war in........