Trump says he may hit countries with tariffs if they do not back US on Greenland

President Donald Trump had not previously mentioned using tariffs to try to force the issue (Alex Brandon/AP)

President Donald Trump has suggested he may punish countries with tariffs if they do not back the US controlling Greenland.

His message came as a US congressional delegation met Danish and Greenlandic politicians in Copenhagen and sought to lower tensions.

Mr Trump for months has insisted that the US should control Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Nato ally Denmark, and said earlier this week that anything less than the Arctic island being in US hands would be “unacceptable”.

“I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland,” he said on Friday, without providing details. “We need Greenland for national security.”

He had not previously mentioned using tariffs to try to force the issue.

Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met in Washington with US vice president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio.

That encounter did not resolve the deep differences, but did produce an agreement to set up a working group — on whose purpose Denmark and the White House then offered sharply diverging public views.