WASHINGTON, DC – Donald Trump is taking his Greenland obsession global – and this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos could become the most combustible stop yet in his Arctic power play.
According to two sources knowledgeable about the matter who spoke to Kyiv Post, the US President has directed his team to prepare several options on Greenland to be proposed to European allies in Davos.
The move comes as the EU weighs retaliatory tariffs, sanctions, and even its nuclear economic option against what leaders see as Trump’s coercive bid to annex the Danish territory.
“This is the most serious transatlantic rupture we’ve seen since the Iraq war,” one senior Western official told Kyiv Post. “And it’s unfolding over an island most Europeans thought was off-limits forever.”
Inside Trump’s Greenland plan
Trump, who has publicly ruled out leasing Greenland, is privately more flexible than his public posture suggests.
Sources say he may be open to a nearly century-long lease – 99 years, to be precise – a workaround designed to soften European outrage while still delivering de facto US control of the resource-rich Arctic island.
Another option under consideration: offering Greenlanders Puerto Rico-style rights.
Under that framework, Greenlanders would become US citizens with full bilateral access and trade privileges. They would be exempt from US income tax unless they moved to the mainland – a pitch aides believe could be sold as a prosperity package for the island’s roughly 56,000 residents.
“They’re trying to package this as a sweetener,” a Western diplomat familiar with the talks said.
Trump’s fixation on Greenland is not new. But in recent weeks, he has ramped up the pressure dramatically – threatening tariffs, hinting at military force, and explicitly linking trade punishment to Denmark’s willingness to sell.
On Saturday, Trump announced a 10 percent tariff on Denmark and other European countries allied with it, beginning next month.
“We have subsidized Denmark, and all of the countries of the European Union, and others, for many years by not charging them tariffs, or any other forms of remuneration,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Now, after centuries, it is time for Denmark to give back – world peace is at stake!”
He added that the import taxes “will be due and payable until such time as a deal is reached for the complete and total purchase of Greenland.”
Europe’s counterstrike: tariffs, sanctions, and “big bazooka”
European leaders have responded with fury – and are now openly discussing economic retaliation.
The EU’s top diplomats met for crisis talks on Sunday and debated reviving a plan to levy tariffs on €93 billion worth of US goods, which had been suspended after last summer’s trade deal with Trump.
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, urged fellow leaders to activate the EU’s powerful anti-coercion instrument – known in Brussels as the “big bazooka” – if Trump goes ahead with his tariff threats, French media reported, citing his team.
The anti-coercion law, which has never been used, would allow the EU to impose sweeping punitive measures on a country attempting to force a policy change through economic pressure.
After the talks, European Council President António Costa announced an emergency EU summit likely to take place Thursday.
“The EU,” Costa said, showed “readiness to defend ourselves against any form of coercion.”
In a joint statement, the leaders of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and Finland warned:
“Tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. We are committed to upholding our sovereignty.”
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called Trump’s tariffs a mistake. Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel went further, branding them “blackmail.”
Still, Europe is far from united on retaliation. “At present, there is no question of deploying the ACI [anti-coercion instrument] or any other trade instrument against the US,” one EU diplomat cautioned.
The €93 billion counter-tariffs remain suspended until Feb. 6, and several officials stressed their preference for dialogue.
“No one wants a trade war over Greenland,” another European official said. “But no one can accept being strong-armed into selling territory either.”
NATO on the brink
Trump’s gambit has sent tremors through NATO.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday dismissed the idea that the US must choose between Greenland and the alliance.
“Both… that’s obviously a false choice,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press.
When told European leaders see it differently, Bessent replied: “The European leaders will come around. And they will understand that they need to be under the US security umbrella.”
He insisted the US would remain in NATO – but made clear Trump wants to avoid being “dragged in” to future wars.
“We are not going to outsource our hemispheric security to other countries,” Bessent said. “America has to be in control here.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence backed Trump’s goal of acquiring Greenland but criticized the tactic.
“I have concerns about using what I think is a questionable constitutional authority, imposing unilateral tariffs on NATO allies to achieve this objective,” Pence told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Republican Congressman Michael McCaul (R-TX) warned that a military invasion of Greenland would amount to war with NATO.
“It would end up abolishing NATO as we know it,” McCaul said on ABC’s This Week.
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) called Trump’s push a “land grab.”
“This is not about security,” he said. “Donald Trump wants to get his hands on the minerals and other resources of Greenland.”
Political backlash at home
On Capitol Hill, Trump’s Greenland crusade is drawing fire from both parties.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) blasted the tariff threat. “Donald Trump’s foolhardy tariffs have already driven up prices and damaged our economy,” Schumer said. “Now he is only making things worse.”
Van Hollen urged Republicans to back a war powers resolution to curb Trump’s foreign military authority.
Former Biden aide Michael Carpenter mocked NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s diplomatic tweet about speaking with Trump on Greenland. “Better not to tweet if that’s all you have to say,” Carpenter wrote.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen struck a defiant tone after speaking with Macron, Rutte, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Meloni.
“Together we stand firm in our commitment to uphold the sovereignty of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark,” she wrote. “We will always protect our strategic economic and security interests.”
Davos: the next flashpoint
All roads now lead to Davos.
Trump is expected to float his Greenland options – from citizenship packages to a century-long lease – directly to European leaders on the sidelines of the summit.
“Davos will be the moment of truth,” one Western official said, adding, “Either this de-escalates into some face-saving compromise, or we’re heading straight into a transatlantic trade and security crisis.”
What began as a long-shot real estate fantasy has metastasized into a full-blown geopolitical confrontation.
With tariffs looming, NATO rattled, and Europe preparing its economic big guns, Trump’s Greenland gambit is no longer a sideshow – it’s a stress test for the Western alliance itself.