{"id":419071,"date":"2026-01-20T17:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T17:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/419071\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T17:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T17:02:14","slug":"us-lawmakers-seek-to-block-trumps-threatened-tariffs-on-european-allies-us-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/419071\/","title":{"rendered":"US lawmakers seek to block Trump\u2019s threatened tariffs on European allies | US politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers from both parties promised legislative action to block Donald Trump\u2019s threatened tariffs against European allies on Monday, though Republicans willing to publicly break<\/a> with the president on Greenland remain in short supply.<\/p>\n

Senator Peter Welch, a Democrat, announced plans to introduce a resolution<\/a> aimed at terminating tariffs Trump threatened to impose over the weekend on eight European nations, including Nato allies Denmark, the UK, Germany and France. The president first mused<\/a> about the tariffs on Friday at a White House roundtable, then punctuated his threat with new details that included a 10% levy beginning in February, escalating to 25% by June unless a deal is reached for what he called the \u201cComplete and Total purchase of Greenland.\u201d<\/p>\n

A joint resolution of disapproval under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act would block the tariffs if it passes both chambers. But Trump could veto the measure, meaning lawmakers would need a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate to override him \u2013 a high bar requiring significant Republican defections.<\/p>\n

Representative Gregory Meeks, the ranking Democrat on the House foreign affairs committee, said he would also offer a resolution to terminate the tariffs, while Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer indicated Democrats<\/a> plan to introduce legislation with binding authority.<\/p>\n

The hard posturing from the Democrats comes on the heels of a bipartisan congressional delegation that traveled to Denmark and Greenland<\/a> over the weekend. Led by Chris Coons, a Democratic senator, it sought to reassure Danish and Greenlandic officials of US support during the escalating tensions. In Copenhagen, Coons said he was hopeful that Danes would not \u201cabandon their faith in the American people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreenland is a part of Denmark<\/a>. Denmark is our Nato ally. That should be the end of this discussion,\u201d Coons said.<\/p>\n

The question now is whether enough Republicans<\/a> will break with Trump to make any measure viable. So far, vocal opposition has come from a small but notable group of GOP senators.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis response to our own allies for sending a small number of troops to Greenland for training is bad for America, bad for American businesses, and bad for America\u2019s allies,\u201d said Thom Tillis, a soon-to-retire Republican senator from North Carolina, who called the tariff threat \u201cgreat for Putin, Xi and other adversaries who want to see Nato divided\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lisa Murkowski, a Republican senator from Alaska, who traveled to Denmark over the weekend as part of the bipartisan delegation, described the tariffs as \u201ca profound mistake\u201d and urged that Greenland be viewed as an ally rather than \u201can asset\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yet Murkowski suggested the limited number of Republicans on the trip should not be interpreted as lack of concern within the party. \u201cI don\u2019t think that the absence of Republicans is because they don\u2019t care about this issue,\u201d Murkowski told reporters, hinting at broader unease among her colleagues.<\/p>\n

Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, warned that a US takeover of Greenland would spell the end of Nato, while Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Greenland\u2019s prime minister, said at a news conference last week: \u201cWe choose Denmark.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denmark\u2019s foreign minister, Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen, who recently joined Trump\u2019s Truth Social platform, expressed surprise at the tariff announcement after what he described as a constructive meeting with JD Vance and Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state.<\/p>\n

The increased Danish military presence in Greenland that Trump referenced, Rasmussen noted, was undertaken \u201cin full transparency with our American allies\u201d to enhance Arctic security.<\/p>\n

Mike Johnson, the US House speaker, speaking to British media, said he did not foresee military intervention in Greenland and believed \u201cdiplomatic channels is the way to go\u201d.<\/p>\n

Democrats will have another opportunity this week to gauge Republican willingness to constrain Trump\u2019s military posturing when the House votes Thursday on a resolution to limit intervention in Venezuela, where the president has also issued threats.<\/p>\n

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, warned the Greenland gambit \u201cundermines Nato at a time when our adversaries seek to benefit from division\u201d.<\/p>\n

In Greenland, a tourism company recently withdrew<\/a> its invitation from Louisiana governor Jeff Landry, Trump\u2019s Greenland envoy, to attend the territory\u2019s annual dog sled race. For the nearly 60,000 Greenlanders watching the escalating dispute over their homeland\u2019s future, Welch said, the anxiety was real.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in Greenland are afraid: they are afraid that the United States is actually going to invade,\u201d the Vermont senator said in a video statement. \u201cOur country, big as it is, secure as it is, should be reassuring our allies we\u2019ll be there for them, not be there against them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lawmakers from both parties promised legislative action to block Donald Trump\u2019s threatened tariffs against European allies on Monday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-419071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419071","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=419071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}