President Donald Trump launched a fresh blitz of messages aimed at NATO allies over his determination to take control of Denmark's Greenland territory, ratcheting up tensions with Greenlandic and European leaders just as he prepares to attend the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
The escalating argument over the Arctic island has threatened to reignite a trade war with Europe and upend the NATO alliance that has underpinned Western security for decades. Trump is due to arrive in the Swiss Alpine ski-resort town on Jan. 21 for the meeting of global elites from business, government and culture.
But ahead of that, in the early hours of Jan. 20, Trump unleashed a series of trolling Truth Social posts that took aim at French President Emmanuel Macron and what he characterized as Britain's "great stupidity" over its decision last year to cede the Indian Ocean-located Chagos Islands to Mauritius, which Trump linked to the Greenland issue.
Trump's texts to Norway: Read messages prime minister on Greenland, Nobel
Trump also posted a doctored image that showed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sitting in the White House's Oval Office next to a map showing Greenland and Canada as American territory. He also posted a separate AI image with him planting an American flag on Greenland soil next to sign that read, "US TERRITORY. EST 2026."
