{"id":428086,"date":"2026-01-21T16:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T16:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/428086\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T16:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T16:38:10","slug":"donald-trump-tells-davos-summit-he-wants-immediate-greenland-deal-but-wont-use-force-to-take-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/428086\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump tells Davos summit he wants ‘immediate’ Greenland deal, but ‘won’t use force’ to take island"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump says he wants “immediate” negotiations on the United States acquiring Greenland, but has ruled out using force to take the Danish territory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The US president used an address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday, local time, to talk up his country’s economy and reiterate his desire to have complete control over the Arctic island.<\/p>\n

His speech, to a packed room that included scores of world and business leaders, came amid heightened tensions between his administration and America’s European allies.<\/p>\n

However, Mr Trump said “I won’t use force” to capture Greenland, something he and his team have previously hinted could happen.<\/p>\n

While Mr Trump allayed the possibility of any military threat from the US in the Danish territory, he did nothing to address the economic ultimatums he’s made to allies over the issue.<\/p>\n

Those have included raising tariffs on several countries if they refuse to agree to his plan to buy Greenland.<\/p>\n

At one point during his speech, delivered Wednesday, local time, Mr Trump appeared to speak directly to European leaders opposing a US takeover.<\/p>\n

“You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative, or you can say no, and we will remember,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Donald Trump takes the stage at the World Economic Forum. (Reuters: Denis Balibouse)<\/p>\n

Mr Trump, using some of his strongest rhetoric on the issue yet, described Denmark as “ungrateful”.<\/p>\n

Despite that, he also appeared to trivialise the demand at points, too, saying getting Greenland was “a small ask” for a “piece of ice”.<\/p>\n

“I’m seeking immediate negotiations to once again to discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States,” he said, after initially telling the room he had planned not to speak about the issue during his Davos address.<\/p>\n

“I was going to leave it out of the speech,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump said he wanted control over Greenland, home to around 56,000 people, not because its natural resources could be valuable, but because of its strategic importance.<\/p>\n

“We want a piece of ice for world protection, and they won’t give it,” the US president said.<\/p>\n

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In the days preceding his speech, the US president had threatened to impose additional tariffs on several NATO countries if they didn’t agree to let the US aquire Greenland.<\/p>\n

In response, European lawmakers refused to ratify a trade agreement struck between the EU and US six months ago.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump has this week singled out Norway, which he incorrectly claims is refusing to award him the Nobel Peace Prize, for particular criticisms.<\/p>\n

But he’s also railed against a UK government plan to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, and France, which declined an offer to join his global Board of Peace.<\/p>\n

British PM Sir Keir Starmer on Wednesday told parliament Mr Trump’s criticisms were an attempt to pressure him into backing his Greenland deal.<\/p>\n

“He wants me to yield on my position, and I’m not going to do so,” Sir Keir said, before Mr Trump took to the stage at Davos.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

BlackRock Chairman Larry Fink was among the business leaders in the room. (Reuters: Jonathan Ernst)<\/p>\n

At multiple points during his speech on Wednesday, Mr Trump said he “loved” NATO and Europe, but that he was not convinced they would support the US.<\/p>\n

His claims are at odds with history. Multiple NATO allies, including Denmark, contributed troops and other resources to the US invasion of Afghanistan, in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks.<\/p>\n

European leaders will meet in Brussels on Thursday evening, local time, to discuss their options to respond to Mr Trump’s demands.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump spent much of his speech deriding his predecessor, Joe Biden, and talking up his country’s economic figures.<\/p>\n

“People are doing very well, they’re very happy with me,” he said, despite multiple polls showing the US president’s approval rating plummeting.<\/p>\n

He spoke for more than an hour, and on several occasions appeared to confuse Greenland with the country of Iceland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump says he wants “immediate” negotiations on the United States acquiring Greenland, but has ruled out using…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,223513,2490,164,40650],"class_list":["post-428086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-davos","tag-donald-trump","tag-economy","tag-world-economic-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}