It was Donald Trump‘s classic negotiating strategy and his quest to acquire Greenland, the ultimate real estate deal, inched forward at a high-stakes showdown with America’s allies in Davos.
Before his appearance at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort on Wednesday, the property baron president had set out a maximalist position, suggesting he may invade the icy wasteland, launching an attack on NATO ally Denmark, which controls Greenland.
Trump had allowed that thunderbolt to sink in, letting the other side – in this case his European and NATO allies – absorb the shock. They frothed at the diplomatic mouth for a while, making indignant statements about him acting like an ‘international gangster.’
Then, in his speech, Trump pulled a rabbit out of the hat, withdrawing the ultimate threat, telling his nervous audience that he will ‘not use force,’ and urging immediate, sensible negotiations instead.
The elephant in the room – military action – departed, the brows of European leaders unfurrowed a little, and they undoubtedly felt back on safe ground, the catastrophic prospect of an internal NATO confrontation averted. Alarmed Greenlanders can stop stocking up on food in anticipation of a U.S. siege.
President Donald Trump speaks during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 21, 2026
Ever the showman, Trump first teased his unsettled listeners, asking: ‘Would you like me to say a few words on Greenland? I was going to leave it out of the speech.’
Then, he added: ‘We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that…I don’t have to use force, I don’t want to use force…’
That last line was delivered with a knowing smile.
To some European leaders, steeped in diplomatic niceties, Trump’s approach may have seemed as subtle as a sledgehammer – akin to a school bully offering protection in return for lunch money, or a Godfather-style offer they cannot refuse.
They may well reject his call for negotiations, believing that Trump’s withdrawal of the military threat was in fact sparked by the hit U.S. financial markets have taken over his Greenland adventure, or that people close to him have reined him in.
However, other influential voices in Europe, the White House hopes, may be more receptive now that an invasion is fully off the table, and more open to a negotiated settlement for what has turned into a remarkably serious threat to the 76-year-old NATO alliance.
President Donald Trump arrives for a bilateral meeting with Switzerland’s President on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 21, 2026
Trump said Greenland is part of North America
Before Trump arrived in Davos, European leaders had been warned that he was coming for them like a ‘T-Rex’ and that you ‘mate with him or he devours you.’
That prediction from Gavin Newsom – who himself has been on the menu before – proved accurate as, early in his speech, Trump went about savaging his allies.
‘I don’t want to insult anybody…’ he began, before doing just that.
Denmark was ‘ungrateful’ for being saved by America in WWII. Canada got ‘freebies’ and ‘lives because of the United States,’ Trump said.
He boasted of his ability to ‘financially destroy’ Switzerland, the host nation. NATO was a ‘one way street’ that gave America ‘nothing’. And Europe has ‘been screwing us for 30 years,’ he went on, before mocking Emmanuel Macron for wearing mirrored sunglasses. He failed to mention Britain’s Sir Keir Starmer at all.
Trump also called European nations ‘stupid people’ for buying Chinese-made windmills. He slammed them over everything from excessive government spending, mass migration, and sending jobs overseas, to the ‘green new scam.’
They would all be ‘speaking German and a little Japanese’ if it wasn’t for America, he said to nervous chuckles in the audience.
A man holds a map of Greenland covered in the American flag crossed out with an X during a protest against Trump’s policy towards Greenland in front of the US consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026
A map of Greenland showing its capital Nuuk
Amid that kind of sustained onslaught, the key question now is which European leader, if any, jumps ship first and sides with Trump over what he went on to call his ‘small ask’ to own Greenland.
‘They (allies) have a choice. You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative. We will remember,’ Trump said ominously.
His message was crystal clear: ultimately, America’s friends will have to decide whether defending Denmark’s right to Greenland is a hill worth their own economies dying on.
The specter of U.S. military action may have receded, but Trump’s second most destructive threat – an economic one involving tariffs – remains a Sword of Damocles hanging over Europe, and he did not look like a man who was bluffing.
On any assessment, America holds the better cards. If Europe does not fold the economic consequences could be truly dire, ushering in a new era of global uncertainty.
Trump’s recent imposition of 10 percent tariffs on eight European allies for not backing him on Greenland could lead to the EU retaliating by using its so-called ‘trade bazooka’ – officially known as the Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI) – which includes steep retaliatory tariffs and customs duties against America.
That could spark a spiraling trade war that would risk millions of jobs on both sides of the Atlantic. The $1.6 trillion trading relationship between Europe and the U.S. is the largest in the world.
Despite all their bluster about defending the right of Denmark and the people of Greenland to decide the the territory’s fate, European leaders are now in an insidious position. For each of them, the U.S. is a vastly more important ally than Denmark. And it may only be a matter of time before the first of them decides to act in their own self-interest.
Whoever bales first and sides with Trump in negotiations, demanding that Denmark hand over Greenland for a fair price, will no longer be seen by him as an enemy.
It will be the turncoats who avoid a potentially crippling trade war with America, gets a hefty tariff cut for their country, and a warm welcome at the White House.
For the benefit of any European leaders quietly thinking of defecting, and calling for Greenland to be handed over, Trump set out his case in reasoned terms.
His desire to own the ‘beautiful piece of ice’ had nothing to do with avarice and enriching America with Greenland’s minerals, which were too far under the ice anyway, he said.
Instead, he argued that the U.S. right to Greenland was stronger than Denmark’s, and that American ownership would make all of NATO safer.
Only America was able to secure Greenland’s strategic position amid Russian and Chinese aggression, he said, noting that Denmark had fallen to Germany in six hours in WWII.
If Armageddon starts, it may well do so with ballistic missiles flying over Greenland, and America should therefore be in charge of it, he suggested.
He would build a ‘golden dome’ defense system to protect from incoming Russian and Chinese attacks.
Trump added that European nations themselves had a long history of acquiring land masses, so the U.S. taking Greenland would be nothing unusual.
Trump also made clear that his desire for Greenland is rooted in a coherent foreign policy. His revival of the 19th Century Monroe Doctrine – renamed the ‘Donroe Doctrine’ – calls for America to dominate its own hemisphere to protect its future.
There are shades too, of another 19th Century policy, ‘Manifest Destiny,’ which justified the territorial expansion of the United States as a divinely ordained measure to spread the American way of life from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
A man walks near a sign that reads: “Greenland Is Not For Sale!” on January 21, 2026 in Nuuk, Greenland.
Trump’s enthusiasm for Greenland was obvious in his speech. Body language expert Judi James observed: ‘His voice maintained a low and at times weary-sounding growl that gained traction and energy when he referenced Greenland.’
And there was more than a hint of contempt for Denmark, she added, as Trump ‘bit at the word with a micro-sneer of his top lip.’
In making his case for why he should get the island, Trump misrepresented that America had ‘stupidly’ given it ‘back’ to Denmark after WWII.
A 1941 agreement, which allowed the U.S. to install military bases, in fact recognized Denmark’s continued sovereignty.
He also referred to Greenland as ‘Iceland’ several times, which may have unnerved that nation’s government.
It will now be for allies to digest Trump’s case and decide how to respond. The White House hopes that, after a decent period of public support for Denmark, European leaders may gradually start to come around to Trump’s way of thinking.
In any event, it seems unlikely they will be able to fend him off for the three years he has remaining in his term.
If Davos proved one thing it is that his obsession with Greenland – and it is now an obsession – is not going away.
Trump seems all the more determined to pursue it because it is achievable, unlike pipe dreams such as making Canada the 51st state.
His obsession appears to have been born, like many fantastical Trump schemes, out of a chat with a billionaire buddy, in this case Ronald Lauder, the Estee Lauder heir, in 2017. According to John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser at the time, it was Lauder who suggested looking into acquiring Greenland.
A few years later Trump recalled how, after seeing a map, he had thought ‘Look at the size of this, it’s massive,’ and that getting it should be ‘no different from a real-estate deal.’
It is unclear – but more than possible – that Trump was looking at a Mercator Projection map, which are very common in school textbooks and as posters, and make Greenland appear much larger than it in fact is. The map was drawn up in the 16th Century to help sailors navigate the globe using a two-dimensional representation, causing areas near the North Pole to be greatly enlarged.
It makes Greenland look the same size as Africa when, in reality, it is 1/14th as big. However, at 836,000 square miles, Greenland is still three times the size of Texas.
Most Greenlanders have said they do not want to be part of the United States
Danish Army soldiers at a shooting range in Greenland shortly after they arrived in Greenland as part of an Arctic Endurance exercise on Monday Jan 19, 2026
For all Greenland would improve America’s security blanket, and at some point bring wealth in the form of minerals, Trump’s determination to acquire it also seems tied up with securing his own legacy, and his own perception of what makes a great presidency. Returning men to the Moon also fits into that bracket.
It would be the biggest land grab in the history of the United States, besting the purchase of Alaska – an area of 665,000 square miles – from Russia by Secretary of State William H. Seward in 1867.
That purchase of a vast icy wasteland was initially known as ‘Seward’s Folly’ – before gold and oil were found – and Trump currently faces similar criticism. Only 17 percent of Americans approve of his efforts to acquire Greenland, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
But he appears confident that in the long run, like Seward, he will be proved right.
Meanwhile, European leaders are currently in a state of outraged denial but might do well to realize it is a battle they are unlikely to win, and to find an off-ramp which causes as little collateral damage to NATO and the world economy as possible.
