Trump Heads to Davos With Greenland US Territory on His Mind

In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, Donald Trump posted an image in which he manfully plants a big US flag into remote, snowy terrain. A small wooden sign – reminiscent of a homesteader’s claim – reads Greenland US Territory Est. 2026. Flanking the US president are the – comparatively minute and servile – figures of the two men deemed most likely to succeed Trump: vice-president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio. What would Rubio’s innermost conscience have made of that image, had he checked his phone in the middle of the night? Would some part of him – the émigré son who set out in Florida politics a full quarter century ago – have been struck and terrified by the undiluted craziness, let alone the dark absurdity of the idea? On the anniversary of his first year in office, Trump’s apparent determination to own Greenland is eclipsing every other controversy for infamy. By lunchtime Tuesday, Trump was back in the presidential garb of navy suit and red tie and in front of the lectern in the Brady briefing room of the West Wing to give the gathered press corps a highly personal and very, very long rundown of all that had been accomplished in year one. He was low-energy and off-kilter as he revealed his frustration at the unfairness of the lack of public praise and approval for his year of extraordinary accomplishment. “Look we inherited a terrible, terrible mess. With the border and the whole country falling apart. Within 12 months we have the strongest border we ever had. Inflation was at an historic high – they say 48 years. Prices because of that were very high. The first news conference they were screaming at me about eggs. I was in the position for two days. The job we did is a miracle. I blame ourselves. I think we are doing a much better job than we are able to promote. We’re not promoting.” Even as Trump spoke, the Dow and Nasdaq were steadily falling by 2 per cent over the day’s trading, the single biggest decline since October. The jitters were attributed to fears over Trump’s plans for Greenland, and the message he was due to deliver at Davos on Wednesday. In the West Wing, he remained coy as to what that might be. “You’ll find out,” he said when asked how far he will go in his determination to acquire Greenland before again damning US fealty to Nato with faint praise. “I’ve done more for Nato than anybody and I’ve seen all the stuff. Nato has to treat us fairly too. The big fear I have for Nato is that we spend tremendous amounts of money with Nato and I know we‘ll come to their rescue but I really do question whether or not they’ll come to ours. Just saying. Remember that? Just saying.” This was just one segment of a 110-minute reflection that included everything from Trump’s pronounced affection for the Hells Angels, his desire to have renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of Trump and a reminiscence about his childhood baseball days in Queens. As a presidential appearance, it deepened concerns that Trump’s capacity to disorient and destabilise international affairs and smash alliances has, in recent weeks, actually increased. For a US president who has prided himself in keeping America out of wars, to threaten military action against an island of 56,000 people and steadfast allies: the moment has the ring of a bleak, terrible joke. “We have all the infrastructure diplomatically to do it already,” said Richard Haas, the veteran diplomat, on Monday, who sounded appalled as he reflected on this crisis in US-European relations. “There are all sorts of agreements. We don’t need confrontation, we don’t need tariffs, we don’t need threats, we don’t need Mafia talk. So, you have to ask yourself: what is going on? This is the real-estate doctrine of foreign policy. Unless you own something, it’s not secure. Well last I checked we didn’t own Europe, and Nato got through the Cold War without a war. We don’t own Taiwan. China’s not invaded Taiwan. “The idea you have to own things to protect them is preposterous. So, you almost have to think we are trying to provoke a crisis with Europe. For a year now, this administration, beginning with JD Vance going over to Europe, has tried to start a cultural war with Europe. And what we see now is this playing out. You could be forgiven for thinking that we are trying to wreck the most fundamental relationship we have had for three-quarters of a century.” Meanwhile, Republican congressman Mike Lawler said on Tuesday that there is “broad bipartisan opposition” to the use of any military force to take Greenland. House speaker Mike Johnson offered syrupy assurances that broadly reinforced the Maga Republican position on Trump as diplomat: all will be well, everyone knows that the president negotiates from an extreme opening position; that when it comes to deal-making, he is the Talleyrand of our age. US secretary treasury Scott Bessent, already in Davos, warned against European nations provoking a tariff war: “The worst thing countries can do is accelerate against the United States.” Bessent’s expression on Tuesday suggested that he is quite enjoying the extreme confusion and rattled, wounded sentiments of his hosts and erstwhile US allies. For the past year the Trump administration has made for a vivid contrast between the brash, can-do, all-American deregulation and acquisition and old European politesse and meekness. The hectoring and lecturing have been constant and the contempt ill-disguised. But the final indignity came from Trump’s domestic nemesis Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California and a guest at Davos, who upbraided world leaders as “pathetic” for their year-long sycophancy towards Trump. Poor old Europe is getting it in the neck from all quarters. Pennsylvania congresswoman Madeleine Dean, just back from a sorry-for-your-trouble bipartisan congressional visit to Denmark as part of the foreign affairs committee, sounded aghast and embarrassed on Tuesday evening. “We have to take him seriously,” she said of Trump. “For an ally to invade the foreign territory of the kingdom of Denmark which includes the island of Greenland: it is insane. It makes no sense. Nobody should listen to Scott Bessent. He is making no sense. He [Trump] wants to possess things. The island of Greenland is not a possession. It is not an asset for him. They are our ally. The worst thing I heard is that the children in Greenland now go to bed at night anxious, fearful that the Americans might attack them. What in God’s name are we doing? The president has poured away respect and trust in our allies.” Recent polls showed that the vast majority of Americans would not approve an invasion of Greenland. But America does not, as a nation, dwell much on Europe, let alone its historical claim to a remote Arctic island. The economy; the NFL play-offs; an ominous snow and ice storm about to fall over the bulk of the US states – these are their current preoccupations as their president hurtled towards the addled gathering at Davos, with real estate on his mind. “We have a lot of meetings scheduled on Greenland and I think things are going to work out pretty well, actually,” the president said at the White House. “I think something is going to happen that will be very good for everybody. Nobody has done more for Nato than me. At 2 per cent they weren’t paying. At 5 per cent they’re paying. I think we are going to work something out where Nato is going to be very happy and we’re going to be very happy. But we need it [Greenland] for security purposes, we need it for national security and even world security.” Nobody knows how far he will go with this. Or if, in year two, Trump can accept the word no, delivered in several European languages, for an answer. We’ll find out.