For Europe, it was first a surprise and then a shock. During his first term, Donald Trump had shown interest in buying Greenland, an autonomous Arctic island that’s part of Denmark. When Mr. Trump, after returning to the White House last year, said “we are going to have Greenland one way or the other”, many thought he was not serious.
Trump Greenland LIVE on January 20, 2026
But after the January 3 U.S. attack on Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolas Maduro, Mr. Trump escalated his claims over Greenland. If the U.S. doesn’t take control of the island, Russia or China will, he said. Mr. Trump’s repeated statements have thrown transatlantic cooperation into disarray. Tensions reached a new peak on January 17, when Mr. Trump imposed a 10% tariff on eight European countries, including Denmark, Germany, France and the U.K. He said the tariffs would be raised to 25% on June 1 and would remain in place until the U.S.’ “complete and total purchase of Greenland”.
As Trump floats buying Greenland, Arctic island still holds toxic US waste
While there were tensions in transatlantic relations in the past — notably during the Suez crisis of 1956 or the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 — this is the first time tensions have reached the level of open hostility. Here what makes the current crisis more severe is that it was triggered by a push from the U.S., a country that has been Europe’s primary security guarantor since the end of the Second World War, to take control of a European territory.
