Trump rules out the use of "force" to annex Greenland and demands "immediate negotiations"

WashingtonFrom Nobel Peace Prize hopeful to near-global savior. Donald Trump's messianic airs have evolved into a kind of imperialist discourse in Davos, where the US president reminded everyone that all countries are indebted to the US. Europe? "We created NATO to protect Europe from the USSR." Canada? "They should be grateful; they can live thanks to the US." "Without us, most countries wouldn't function." And what does the president ask in return for all that sacrifice? "To acquire Greenland, to own it."

In a gesture meant to be magnanimous by someone who reminded all attendees how he kidnapped Nicolás Maduro three weeks ago, Trump insisted that "I don't want to use force" to obtain Greenland. "People thought I would use force. I don't have to use force. I don't want to use force. I won't use force. All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland," the Republican declared, demanding "immediate negotiations" to buy the Arctic island. Or rather, "recover," as he put it during a far-fetched reinterpretation of the US role in World War II.

According to the tycoon, this "Big beautiful piece of ice" had already been "under American guardianship," but "we respectfully returned it to Denmark not too long ago, after we had defeated the Germans, the Japanese, the Italians, and others in World War II; Greenland in Denmark. How stupid we were to do it, but we did it, we gave it back. But how ungrateful they are now?" And he added, in a general rebuke to Europeans for their lack of regard for Washington's savior role: "Right now, maybe you'd be speaking German or some Japanese, maybe."

The argument applied to Greenland is the same as the one used for the claims. The Republican clung to the fact that the US participated in its construction to say that it should now be returned to them. France initiated the project, and Paris has never been claiming annexation of the infrastructure to save Europe. The main reason the Americans entered World War II was in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, not out of any moral obligation to Europe. The idea: Europe is indebted to Washington for NATO and now also for the war in Ukraine. We never asked for anything. We never got anything. [...] But I think the time has come for NATO to step up. We are helping them with Ukraine; "Without us, I think Putin would have gone all the way."

Following comments about the war in Ukraine and the role of the US, Trump announced that he will meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky this afternoon. "I think they're at a point now where they can come together and make a deal, and if they don't, they're done for. This goes for both of them," the tycoon said, also referring to Vladimir Putin.

Trump boasted about the purge of civil servants he carried out within the administration as soon as he arrived at the White House. The president asserted that thanks to this, "they're now going to look for jobs in the private sector earning double or more." "They hated me when we fired them, and now they love me."

Trump's intervention has generated much anticipation, amid growing tension over his insistence on annexing Greenland and his trade threats to several European countries. Hours before traveling to Switzerland, he spoke about the Arctic. In a press conference at the White House this Tuesday, he expressed his conviction that Greenlanders will eventually want to integrate into the United States, despite all polls indicating otherwise. A team of advisors and members of his administration, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, held a ceremony on Thursday to launch what he has called the Peace Board, whose first mission would be to oversee the political transition in the Gaza Strip. He said they are considering it, but some, like Emmanuel Macron, have already declined to participate, which has increased tensions between the two leaders.