Trump threatens tariffs on countries that reject US control over Greenland

U.S. President Donald Trump warned on January 16 that he may impose tariffs on countries that refuse to support Washington’s push for control over Greenland, escalating his rhetoric as a bipartisan Congressional delegation arrived in Copenhagen in an effort to ease tensions.

Trump has repeatedly argued for months that the United States should take control of Greenland, the semiautonomous Arctic territory of NATO ally Denmark, and earlier this week declared that anything short of U.S. ownership of the island would be “unacceptable.”

Speaking at a White House event on rural health care, Trump recalled threatening European allies with tariffs on pharmaceuticals and suggested he could adopt the same approach on the Greenland issue.

“I may do that for Greenland too,” he said. “I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that.”

This marked the first time he had raised tariffs as a possible tool to advance his position.

The week also saw a meeting in Washington between the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland and U.S. Vice President JD Vance, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Although the talks did not bridge the significant differences between the parties, they did result in an agreement to establish a working group — whose intended purpose was later described in sharply conflicting terms by Copenhagen and the White House.

European officials have emphasised that decisions regarding Greenland rest exclusively with Denmark and Greenland. Denmark also announced this week that it is increasing its military presence in Greenland in coordination with allied nations.

Meanwhile in Copenhagen, a bipartisan U.S. delegation of senators and House members held discussions on Friday with Danish and Greenlandic lawmakers, as well as Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. The delegation’s leader, Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, expressed appreciation for “225 years of being a good and trusted ally and partner,” adding that the two sides held “a strong and robust dialogue about how we extend that into the future.”

The dispute is already having a significant impact on Greenlandic society. On Tuesday, Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen stated that “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We chose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU.”

The issue has also raised concerns among Indigenous communities. Sara Olsvig, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council based in Nuuk — representing approximately 180,000 Inuit across Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia’s Chukotka region — said the White House’s repeated claims that the United States must own Greenland reveal “a clear picture of how the US administration views the people of Greenland, how the U.S. administration views Indigenous peoples, and peoples that are few in numbers.”

Speaking to journalists in Nuuk, she argued that the situation highlights “how one of the biggest powers in the world views other peoples that are less powerful than them. And that really is concerning.”

She stressed that Indigenous Inuit in Greenland do not want to experience colonisation again.

By Tamilla Hasanova