T
he showdown between Donald Trump and the European Union has begun, and the US president alone bears responsibility. By threatening to impose new tariffs on EU member states that have clearly opposed his obsessive plan to seize Greenland, Trump, egged on by ill-advised ideologues, has chosen escalation.
It apparently bears repeating that nothing justifies such a provocation. It runs directly counter to the wishes of Greenlanders, who made it clear during marches on Saturday, January 17, that they do not want to become American. And it targets a sovereign territory attached to a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Denmark. Copenhagen has signaled its readiness to cooperate fully with Washington to address US security concerns in an Arctic region that has become increasingly strategic.
Since Trump's return to power and the string of coups de force that followed, European leaders long considered it paramount to spare his ego at all costs so as not to jeopardize the Atlantic alliance or US support for Ukraine. That is why they resorted to endless flattery and obsequiousness and accepted a one-sided trade deal negotiated by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. She had convinced herself that this would settle the matter once and for all. Trump, by contrast, concluded that he could continue down the path of diktats without fearing any pushback.
