US President Donald Trump said Friday he may slap trade tariffs on countries that don’t support his plans to take over Greenland, part of the territory of NATO ally Denmark.
“I may put a tariff on countries
if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security,” Trump said at a health roundtable at the White House.
“I may do that,” added Trump.
Trump compared the possible Greenland tariffs to those that he threatened on France and Germany last year over the price of pharmaceutical products.
The threat is the latest pressure tactic by Republican Trump as he steps up his bid to acquire the autonomous Arctic island, a goal that he has threatened to achieve by military means if necessary.
Trump claims the United States needs mineral-rich Greenland and has accused Denmark of not doing enough to ensure its security against US rivals Russia and China.
The US president on Friday also appeared to question his country’s core role in NATO over Greenland, while adding that Washington was “talking to” the military alliance about the issue.
“We’re going to see. NATO has been dealing with us on Greenland,” Trump later told reporters when asked if he would pull the United States out of NATO if it doesn’t help it acquire Greenland.
“We need Greenland for national security very badly. If we don’t have it, we have a hole in national security, especially when it comes to what we’re doing in terms of the Golden Dome,” he added, referring to his planned missile defense system.
European nations who are members of NATO have in recent days shown their support for Denmark and Greenland over Trump’s escalating threats, including by sending troops to the strategic territory.
A bipartisan US Congress delegation also began a visit to Copenhagen on Friday to voice their backing for Denmark and Greenland.
The foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland visited the White House on Wednesday for talks to defuse the issue but said afterward that they remained in “fundamental disagreement” with Trump.
But the United States, Denmark and Greenland had agreed to set up a working group to continue talks every two to three weeks, the White House said on Thursday.
Britain, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden have announced the deployment of small numbers of military personnel to prepare for future exercises in the Arctic.
But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the European troops did not impact Trump’s “goal of the acquisition of Greenland at all.”
