{"id":414828,"date":"2026-01-18T11:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T11:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/414828\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T11:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T11:43:07","slug":"europeans-reeling-as-trump-imposes-tariffs-on-8-countries-over-greenland-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/414828\/","title":{"rendered":"Europeans reeling as Trump imposes tariffs on 8 countries over Greenland dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"

BERLIN — Europeans were reeling Sunday from U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that eight countries will face 10% tariff<\/a> for opposing American control of Greenland.<\/p>\n

The responses to Trump’s decision on Saturday ranged from saying it risked \u201ca dangerous downward spiral\u201d to predicting that \u201cChina and Russia must be having a field day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump’s threat sets up a potentially dangerous test of U.S. partnerships in Europe. Several European countries have sent troops to Greenland in recent days, saying they are there for Arctic security training.<\/a> Trump’s announcement came Saturday as thousands of Greenlanders<\/a> were wrapping up a protest outside the U.S. Consulate in the capital, Nuuk.<\/a><\/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<\/a> Denmark that he regards as critical to U.S. national security. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland would face the tariff. <\/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<\/a> challenge. <\/p>\n

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said China and Russia will benefit from the divisions between the U.S. and the Europe. She added in a post on social media: \u201cIf Greenland\u2019s security is at risk, we can address this inside NATO. Tariffs risk making Europe and the United States poorer and undermine our shared prosperity.”<\/p>\n

Trump’s move also was panned domestically. <\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, a former U.S. Navy pilot<\/a> and Democrat who represents Arizona, posted that Trump\u2019s threatened tariffs on U.S. allies would make Americans \u201cpay more to try to get territory we don\u2019t need.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cTroops from European countries are arriving in Greenland to defend the territory from us. Let that sink in,\u201d he wrote on social media. \u201cThe damage this President is doing to our reputation and our relationships is growing, making us less safe. If something doesn\u2019t change we will be on our own with adversaries and enemies in every direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norway and the U.K. are not part of the 27-member EU, which operates as a single economic zone in terms of trading. It was not immediately clear if Trump’s tariffs would impact the entire bloc. EU envoys scheduled emergency talks for Sunday evening to determine a potential response. <\/p>\n

Ant\u00f3nio Costa, president of the European Council, and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, pledged to continue their full solidarity with Denmark and Greenland.<\/p>\n

\u201cTariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. Europe will remain united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty,\u201d they wrote in a joint statement late Saturday.<\/p>\n

The tariff announcement even drew blowback from Trump’s populist allies in Europe.<\/p>\n

Jordan Bardella, president of Marine Le Pen\u2019s far-right National Rally party in France and also a European Parliament lawmaker, posted that the EU should suspend last year\u2019s tariff deal<\/a> with the U.S., describing Trump\u2019s threats as \u201ccommercial blackmail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump also achieved the rare feat of uniting Britain\u2019s main political parties \u2014 including the hard-right Reform UK party \u2014 all of whom criticized the tariff threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t always agree with the U.S. government and in this case we certainly don\u2019t. These tariffs will hurt us,\u201d Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, a longtime champion and ally of Trump, wrote on social media. He stopped short of criticizing Trump’s designs on Greenland.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who leads the center-left Labour Party, said the tariffs announcement was \u201ccompletely wrong\u201d and his government would \u201cbe pursuing this directly with the U.S. administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

The foreign ministers of Denmark and Norway are also expected to address the crisis Sunday in Oslo during a news conference.<\/p>\n

__<\/p>\n

Leicester reported from Paris and Cook from Brussels. Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London and Josh Boak in West Palm Beach, Florida, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERLIN — Europeans were reeling Sunday from U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that eight countries will face 10%…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[198804,23,966,793,962,7590,3139,3,111,21,19,22,20,25,24,800,965],"class_list":{"0":"post-414828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-198804","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-article","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-government-policy","13":"tag-international-agreements","14":"tag-international-trade","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa","23":"tag-washington-news","24":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}