Photo: Michael Kappeler/Picture Alliance/Getty Images
While it’s cliché to call Donald Trump’s behavior childish, there’s really no other way to characterize his demand to take Greenland. Polls show that Greenlanders don’t want to be part of the U.S., and Americans’ support for forcibly taking the Arctic island is in the single digits. While Greenland is important for strategic and defense reasons, experts say Trump could get pretty much everything he wants there if he just asks nicely. But Trump keeps insisting he has to have Greenland, and he has to have it now.
Now the president is using increasingly immature tactics in his quest to obtain the Arctic island, pouting about how he was robbed of a Nobel Peace Prize and publicly sharing world leaders’ private text messages about Greenland on Truth Social.
Trump kicked off the long MLK Day weekend by inviting countries to join a new “Board of Peace,” which he will chair. It appears he’s envisioning an American-dominated alternative United Nations with a $1 billion admission fee. Then, in a lengthy Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump announced he will impose tariffs on several nations if they don’t let the U.S. purchase Greenland:
Starting on February 1st, 2026, all of the above mentioned Countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and Finland), will be charged a 10% Tariff on any and all goods sent to the United States of America. On June 1st, 2026, the Tariff will be increased to 25%. This Tariff will be due and payable until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.
A day later, Trump’s text-based behind-the-scenes tantrum-ing spilled into public. In a Sunday message to Jonas Gahr Støre, the prime minister of Norway, Trump said he’s demanding Greenland because he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize.
“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Trump wrote. He went on to question Denmark’s claim to Greenland.
Støre said in a statement that he has repeatedly explained to Trump that — as everyone else is well aware — Norway has nothing to do with who gets the Nobel as “it is an independent Nobel Committee, and not the Norwegian government, that awards the prize.”
Nevertheless, it seems Team Trump thought this error-ridden text was smart messaging. The Atlantic noted, “The text was forwarded by the White House National Security Council to ambassadors in Washington, and was clearly intended to be widely shared.”
So it does not seem that Trump’s next unhinged move was an act of retaliation for his message being shared publicly. While traveling to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum early on Tuesday morning, Trump posted what France later confirmed was a private text from French president Emmanuel Macron:
A day earlier, Trump had publicly threatened France with a 200 percent tariff on wines and Champagnes following reports that Macron would refuse to join the Board of Peace. It seems Macron was attempting to smooth things over by reminding his “friend” Trump of their agreement on other foreign-policy issues and offering to set up a Thursday G7 meeting in Paris, along with a private dinner, to hash out the Greenland issue.
Attempting to humiliate foes by sharing their private messages is a common Trump tactic (it was actually the premise for one of his coffee-table books). But this is the first time he has posted private messages from a foreign leader, aside from a fawning text NATO chief Mark Rutte sent him last summer.
Trump continued his Truth Social taunting by posting altered images that showed him taking over Greenland (along with Venezuela and Canada):
Next, Trump lashed out at the U.K. for giving away the island of Diego Garcia, arguing that it’s yet another reason why the U.S. must take Greenland:
Then Trump shared a private message in which Rutte praised him and promised to hype his foreign-policy achievements in Davos:
Trump told the New York Post that he shared the messages because they show European leaders are behaving differently toward him behind the scenes as they publicly issue warnings about Greenland.
“It just made my point. They’re saying, ‘Oh gee, let’s have dinner, let’s do this, let’s do that.’ It just made my point,” he said.
Both Macron and the White House confirmed on Tuesday that the proposed G7 meeting in Paris isn’t happening, as AFP reports:
‘No meeting is scheduled. The French presidency is willing to hold one,’ Macron told AFP in brief remarks after he delivered a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
… A White House official told AFP that Trump has ‘no plans to travel to Paris at this time’. The US president is set to arrive in Davos on Wednesday and leave on Thursday.
So what’s next for Greenland? For now, it seems we’re all being held hostage, at the whim of a leader who’d rather bully allies via threats and nasty online posts than sit down to find a reasonable way to get what he wants.
This post was updated to include Trump’s remarks to the Post.
