Trump withdraws tariff threat after announcing preliminary agreement with NATO on Greenland

WashingtonDonald Trump's latest about-face. The US president has withdrawn his threat to impose tariffs on European states after reaching an agreement in principle with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. "This solution, if it comes to fruition, will be a great solution for the United States of America and for all NATO nations. Based on this understanding, I will not impose the tariffs that were scheduled to take effect on February 1," he wrote. "We got everything we wanted," the tycoon said, without providing further details about the nature of the agreement reached with Rutte, who has always been accommodating to him. The Alliance confirmed the meeting and stated that the "framework" of the agreement will focus on ensuring security in the region through "the collective effort of the allies, especially the seven Arctic allies."

Just hours before the announcement, the US president had traded his Nobel Peace Prize aspirations for the role of global savior at the Davos Forum. Trump's messianic airs have evolved into a kind of imperialism on the podium, where the president reminded everyone that the whole world is 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 don't function." And what does the president ask in return for all that sacrifice? "To acquire Greenland, to own it."

In the speech preceding the announcement, Trump had already toned down the threat to the Arctic island. In a magnanimous gesture—from someone who had reminded the Davos audience how he captured Nicolás Maduro three weeks earlier—Trump said he doesn'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'm not going to use force. All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland," the Republican declared in his speech, 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.

The campaign of pressure and threats to acquire Greenland meant that Trump was playing on hostile territory this Wednesday. Or at least that was the expectation at the World Economic Forum held in Switzerland, where numerous European leaders were in attendance. But instead of the stony silence with which even Senior US military commanders defied the president in SeptemberThe Davos audience did nothing but laugh at his jokes. Right from the start, Trump claimed to be happy to be "with so many friends, and a few enemies." When it was his turn to speak about Greenland, after more than 20 minutes of speaking, Trump asked the forum: "Can I say a few words about Greenland?" And the audience laughed as if just yesterday the Republican hadn't been threatening Europe with a military attack.

According to the tycoon, this "big beautiful piece of ice"It turns out it had already been 'under American tutelage': 'But after the war [World War II], we returned Greenland to Denmark. How stupid we were, but we did it, we returned it. But how ungrateful they are now!' And he added, in a general reproach to Europeans for their lack of consideration for Washington's saving role: 'Right now, maybe you'd be speaking German or some Japanese, maybe.' The fact is that during World War II, the Danish ambassador in Washington signed a treaty with then-President Rosé, who was in the hands of the Axis powers. Once the war ended, Truman returned the territory to Denmark. France initiated the project, but has never claimed its annexation. Trump wants to live off the benefits of the US role. Greenland is a matter of national security for the US, and only they are capable of protecting the island from the threat of China and Russia. 'It's not important for any other reason. Everyone talks about the minerals, but there are minerals in many places.'" There are rare earth elements. [...] This is not the reason we need it. We need it for strategic national security and international security. This enormous unsecured island is part of North America, on the northern border of the Western Hemisphere. This is our territory,” the Republican argued. Yesterday, amid the flurry of posts on Truth Social, Trump shared an AI-edited photograph of when European leaders met with him at the White House. In the image, Trump was showing them a map where the US, Canada, Greenland, and Cuba were located.

Last week, representatives from Denmark and Greenland already visited Washington. to express their firm no to the idea that the US could buy the Arctic island. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt emphasized their "fundamental disagreement" with Trump's proposal, but nevertheless stated they would continue talks to find a solution that would accommodate both sides. Later, when moderator and former Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende asked him what kind of agreement he envisioned for Denmark regarding Greenland, Trump responded with the same idea: Europe is indebted to Washington for NATO and now also for the war in Ukraine. "NATO has treated the United States of America very unfairly. We never asked for anything. We never got anything. [...] But I think the time has come for NATO to step up. We're helping them with Ukraine; without us, I think Putin would have gone all the way." Meeting with Zelensky

Following comments about the war in Ukraine and the US role, Trump announced he will meet with President Zelensky. "I think they're at a point now where they can come together and make a deal, and if they don't, they're stupid. That goes for both of them," the tycoon said, also referring to Vladimir Putin. Beyond the historical debt, Trump also attacked the European Union again. Echoing the ideas in the US national security plan published in September, he stated that "certain places in Europe are unrecognizable." "This is in a very negative sense, and I love Europe and I want to see Europe do well, but it's not going in the right direction. In recent decades, in Washington and in European capitals, it has become a kind of conventional wisdom that the only way to grow a modern Western economy was through a constant increase in government spending, a constant increase in government spending," the president said.

In the first twenty minutes of his speech, before he began talking about Greenland, Trump again listed the same successes he had already recounted yesterday from the White House: a supposed economic improvement, his commitment to a return to oil with his particular obsession against wind turbines, and the reduction of the civil service. Meanwhile, polls and the cost of living show a plummeting popularity for the tycoon and prices that continue to rise, contrary to what he promised during the campaign.

Trump traveled to Switzerland with a large team of advisors and members of his administration, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Also in the audience were Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the White House's top negotiators with Russia and Ukraine. During their remarks, they all received praise from the president for their work.