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Denmark Greenland U.S. A Danish serviceman climbs out of a hatch on the bow of the military vessel HDMS Knud Rasmussen of the Royal Danish Navy docked in Nuuk, Greenland, on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo\/Evgeniy Maloletka) <\/p>\nCTV News Channel is Canada’s 24-hour all-news network. Watch the latest headlines from Canada and around the world. <\/p>\n
NUUK, Greenland \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would charge a 10 per cent import tax starting in February on goods from eight European nations because of their opposition to American control of Greenland, setting up a potentially dangerous test of U.S. partnerships in Europe.<\/p>\n
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland would face the tariff, Trump said in a social media post while at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The rate would climb to 25 per cent on June 1 if no deal was in place for \u201cthe Complete and Total purchase of Greenland\u201d by the United States, he said.<\/p>\n
The Republican president appeared to indicate that he was using the tariffs as leverage to force talks with Denmark and other European countries over the status of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark that he regards as critical to U.S. national security.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States of America is immediately open to negotiation with Denmark and\/or any of these Countries that have put so much at risk, despite all that we have done for them,\u201d Trump said on Truth Social.<\/p>\n
The tariff threat could mark a problematic rupture between Trump and America\u2019s longtime NATO partners, further straining an alliance that dates to 1949 and provides a collective degree of security to Europe and North America. Trump has repeatedly tried to use trade penalties to bend allies and rivals alike to his will, generating investment commitments from some nations and pushback from others, notably China.<\/p>\n
Denmark Greenland U.S. A Danish serviceman climbs out of a hatch on the bow of the military vessel HDMS Knud Rasmussen of the Royal Danish Navy docked in Nuuk, Greenland, on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo\/Evgeniy Maloletka) <\/p>\n
Trump is scheduled to travel on Tuesday to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he likely will run into the European leaders he just threatened with tariffs that would start in little more than two weeks.<\/p>\n
Danish Foreign Minister Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen said Trump\u2019s move was a \u201csurprise\u201d given the \u201cconstructive meeting\u201d with top U.S. officials this week in Washington.<\/p>\n
The European Commission\u2019s president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the head of the European Council, Antonio Costa, said in a joint statement that tariffs \u201cwould undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral.\u201d They said Europe would remain \u201ccommitted to upholding its sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are immediate questions about how the White House could try to implement the tariffs because the EU is a single economic zone in terms of trading, according to a European diplomat who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. It was unclear, too, how Trump could act under U.S. law, though he could cite emergency economic powers that are currently subject to a U.S. Supreme Court challenge.<\/p>\n
Trump has long said he thinks the U.S. should own the strategically located and mineral-rich island, which has a population of about 57,000 and whose defense is provided by Denmark. He intensified his calls a day after the military operation to oust Venezuela\u2019s Nicolas Maduro earlier this month.<\/p>\n
The president indicated the tariffs were retaliation for what appeared to be the deployment of s ymbolic levels of troops from the European countries to Greenland, which he has said was essential for the \u201cGolden Dome\u201d missile defense system for the U.S., He also has argued that Russia and China might try to take over the island.<\/p>\n
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Trump Denmark Greenland People gather for a pro- Greenlanders demonstration, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Emil Helms\/Ritzau Scanpix via AP) <\/p>\n
The U.S. already has access to Greenland under a 1951 defense agreement. Since 1945, the American military presence in Greenland has decreased from thousands of soldiers over 17 bases and installations to 200 at the remote Pituffik Space Base in the northwest of the island, the Danish foreign minister has said. That base supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the U.S. and NATO.<\/p>\n
Resistance has steadily built in Europe to Trump\u2019s ambitions even as several countries on the continent agreed to his 15 per cent tariffs last year in order to preserve an economic and security relationship with Washington.<\/p>\n
French President Emmanuel Macron, in a social media post, seemed to equate the tariff threat to Russian leader Vladimir Putin\u2019s war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo intimidation or threats will influence us, whether in Ukraine, Greenland or anywhere else in the world when we are faced with such situations,\u201d Macron said in a translated post on X.<\/p>\n
`Important for the whole world\u2019<\/p>\n
Earlier Saturday, hundreds of people in Greenland\u2019s capital, Nuuk, braved near-freezing temperatures, rain and icy streets to march in a rally in support of their own self-governance.<\/p>\n
Thousands of people also marched through Copenhagen, many of them carrying Greenland\u2019s flag. Some held signs with slogans such as \u201cMake America Smart Again\u201d and \u201cHands Off.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is important for the whole world,\u201d Danish protester Elise Riechie told The Associated Press as she held Danish and Greenlandic flags. \u201cThere are many small countries. None of them are for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rallies occurred hours after a bipartisan delegation of U.S. lawmakers, while visiting Copenhagen, sought to reassure Denmark and Greenland of their support.<\/p>\n
European training exercises<\/p>\n
Danish Maj. Gen. S\u00f8ren Andersen, leader of the Joint Arctic Command, told the AP that Denmark does not expect the U.S. military to attack Greenland, or any other NATO ally, and that European troops were recently deployed to Nuuk for Arctic defense training.<\/p>\n
He said the goal is not to send a message to the Trump administration, even though the White House has not ruled out taking the territory by force.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will not go into the political part, but I will say that I would never expect a NATO country to attack another NATO country,\u201d he said from aboard a Danish military vessel docked in Nuuk. \u201cFor us, for me, it\u2019s not about signaling. It is actually about training military units, working together with allies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Danish military organized a planning meeting Friday in Greenland with NATO allies, including the U.S., to discuss Arctic security on the alliance\u2019s northern flank in the face of a potential Russian threat. The Americans were also invited to participate in Operation Arctic Endurance in Greenland in the coming days, Andersen said.<\/p>\n
Trump: \u2018I may put a tariff on countries if they don\u2019t go along with Greenland\u2019 Trump says he may put tariffs on countries who don\u2019t support his plan for Greenland, which he says the U.S. needs for national security. <\/p>\n
In his 2 1\/2 years as a commander in Greenland, Andersen said that he hasn\u2019t seen any Chinese or Russian combat vessels or warships, despite Trump saying that they were off the island\u2019s coast.<\/p>\n
But in the unlikely event of American troops using force on Danish soil, Andersen confirmed that Danish soldiers have an obligation to fight back.<\/p>\n
`Almost no better\u2019 ally to U.S. than Denmark<\/p>\n
Trump has contended that China and Russia have their own designs on Greenland and its vast untapped reserves of critical minerals. He said recently that anything less than the Arctic island being in U.S. hands would be \u201cunacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president has seen tariffs as a tool to get what he wants without having to resort to military actions. At the White House on Friday, he recounted how he had threatened European allies with tariffs on pharmaceuticals and he teased the possibility of doing so again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI may do that for Greenland, too,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
After Trump followed through, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said \u201cCongress must reclaim tariff authorities\u201d so that they are not used solely at a president\u2019s discretion.<\/p>\n
Denmark said this week that it was increasing its military presence in Greenland in cooperation with allies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is almost no better ally to the United States than Denmark,\u201d said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., while visiting Copenhagen with other members of Congress. \u201cIf we do things that cause Danes to question whether we can be counted on as a NATO ally, why would any other country seek to be our ally or believe in our representations?\u201d<\/p>\n
Josh Boak, Emma Burrows and Daniel Niemann, The Associated Press<\/p>\n
Burrows reported from Nuuk, Greeland, and Niemann from Copenhagen, Denmark. Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio in Berlin, Aamer Madhani in Washington and Kwiyeon Ha and Evgeniy Maloletka in Nuuk, Greenland contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CTV News Channel is Canada’s 24-hour all-news network. Watch the latest headlines from Canada and around the world.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,77,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-416310","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-international","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}