President Donald Trump, in his own inimitable way, struck a bellicose and yet conciliatory tone with European leaders in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, somewhat tempering rising trans-Atlantic tensions and stock market jitters over concerns the U.S. is considering a takeover of Greenland.
The nearly 90-minute speech, in which Trump lectured and hectored the tech executives and government officials in the audience, many from Europe, before clarifying that he didn’t want to use force and ultimately wanted peace, could be summed up by Trump ribbing French President Emmanuel Macron, seemingly unaware of his eye injury. “I watched him yesterday with his beautiful sunglasses. I said, ‘What the hell happened?’” Trump later added, “I actually like him. I do.”
And while the president ruled out using military force to acquire the Danish territory of Greenland, he did not back down from antagonistic rhetoric while repeating his contested claim of having stopped eight wars around the world. (Trump’s desire for a Nobel Peace Prize, one measure of his competitiveness with predecessor Barack Obama, has hung on this eight-war figure, which some countries such as India and Pakistan reject.)
Trump used his highly anticipated address at the World Economic Forum as a platform to reaffirm his critique of European nations and of the U.S.’s status as a global superpower, but clarified that he prefers a peaceful resolution to the question over Greenland’s ownership that has threatened to kneecap the 76-year-old NATO alliance.
