Trump threatens tariffs against those who oppose him taking Greenland
President Donald Trump boards Air Force One, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on countries that do not “go along” with his plan to annex Greenland, increasing pressure on European allies who have opposed his effort to take over the Arctic territory.
After a tense week in which Nato allies deployed troops to the largely autonomous territory, which is part of the Danish kingdom, the US president announced he might punish countries that do not support his plans to take over Greenland, using force if necessary.
Earlier, Trump’s special envoy to Greenland said a deal for Washington to take over the island “should and will be made” as a US congressional delegation visited Copenhagen in a show of support for Denmark and Greenland.
Jeff Landry said he planned to visit Greenland in March and that the US president “is serious” about acquiring theArctic island.
The bipartisan group of 11 members of the House and Senate – including the Republican senators Thom Tillis and Lisa Murkowski and the Democrat senator Chris Coons – travelled to the capital of Denmark to meet the Danish and Greenlandic leaders, Mette Frederiksen and Jens-Frederik Nielsen, in a show of solidarity against Trump’s threats of military intervention.
It is the second time this week Trump has used the threat of tariffs, saying he would impose a 25% tax on imports to the US from countries that do business with Iran amid a brutal crackdown by its regime that has left thousands dead and imprisoned tens of thousands.
Trump raised the tariffs idea on Friday during a wide-ranging 45-minute nearly uninterrupted address at a packed rural healthcare event in the White House East Room.
Trump told the audience of lawmakers, doctors and political power players he might put tariffs on countries that did not “go along with Greenland because we need Greenland for national security”.
He pointed to threats he made against European allies over drug pricing, saying he warned France and Germany of 25% tariffs if they did not pay more for prescription drugs, and recalled telling French president Emmanuel Macron: “You have to get your drug prices up.”
He mused that he could take the same approach to Denmark and “may do that for Greenland too”.
His comments came after Landry told Fox News: “I do believe that there’s a deal that should and will be made once this plays out.”
He added: “The president is serious. I think he’s laid the markers down.
“He’s told Denmark what he’s looking for, and now it’s a matter of having Secretary Rubio and Vice-President JD Vance make a deal.”
Denmark announced it had agreed to provide support to help Greenland’s emergency preparedness.
Torsten Schack Pedersen, Denmark’s minister for public safety and emergency preparedness, said: “It is important that we stand together.”
Peter Borg, Greenland’s minister for fisheries, hunting, agriculture, self-sufficiency and environment, said his government “appreciates the support from Denmark to strengthen preparedness in Greenland”.
This week, Greenlanders living in the capital, Nuuk, said they were so afraid of the threat from the US that they were watching the skies and seas themselves. In the absence of emergency preparedness support from authorities, many said they had been left to work out their own plans on what to do in the case of emergency evacuation or capture by US forces.
During the congressional visit to Denmark, for which the Greenlandic flag, Erfalasorput, was flown at Christiansborg Palace, the US lawmakers were due to meet other Danish and Greenlandic politicians as well as Frederiksen and Nielsen.
Arriving at a lunch meeting at the Confederation of Danish Industry, the Democrat Steny Hoyer told TV 2: “Keep the faith. You’ve got a lot of people with you.”
At a joint press conference, Coons thanked Denmark for “225 years of being a good and trusted ally and partner” and said they had a “strong and robust” dialogue about how to continue their relationship into the future.
“There’s a lot of rhetoric but not a lot of reality” in Washington, he said, in discussions about Greenland. He added that they were hoping to use information from the visit to try to “lower the temperature” and have a “constructive dialogue” at home.
Murkowski said the majority of Americans did not want a US takeover of Greenland, adding: “Greenland needs to be viewed as our ally, not as an asset.”
After Wednesday’s closely watched high-stakes meeting between the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the US vice-president, Vance, and the foreign ministers of Greenland and Denmark, the two sides gave starkly contrasting accounts of what was agreed.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, on Thursday claimed that a delegation from Denmark and Greenland had agreed to “continue to have technical talks on the acquisition of Greenland”.
But Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Vivian Motzfeldt, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland respectively, contradicted her claims.
Rasmussen said they had not made such an agreement, but had formed a working group to investigate whether it was possible to “accommodate” US security wishes for the Arctic region.
Motzfeldt said Leavitt had not been at the meeting, telling the Greenland newspaper Sermitsiaq: “There is a lot of work ahead, the situation is still very uncertain, but we have a new channel, a place where we can talk directly to each other.”
On Thursday, Frederiksen said Greenland’s defence was a “common concern” for Nato as international troops started arriving in Greenland from across Europe.
A spokesperson for the German defence ministry said on Friday that the reconnaissance mission would assess the viability of deploying Eurofighter jets to the territory.
“It is a matter of looking at whether the Arctic is secure and to what extent we can contribute to this together with our Nato partners,” the spokesperson said.
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