Donald Trump said he will impose a 25% tariff on a slew of European countries including Denmark, Germany and the UK – until the US is allowed to purchase Greenland, in an escalation of the US president’s bid to claim the autonomous Danish territory.
In a lengthy post on Saturday on Truth Social, Trump said he would impose a 10% tariff on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland beginning 1 February, “on any and all goods sent to the United States of America”.
He said the tariff will increase to 25% on 1 June.
“This Tariff will be due and payable until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland,” Trump said.
In the post, Trump said Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland “have journeyed to Greenland, for purposes unknown”. It was an apparent reference to Nato deploying troops in Greenland on Thursday in response to Trump’s threats to forcefully take the Arctic island, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Trump suggested, incorrectly, that residents of Greenland “currently have two dogsleds as protection” – and claimed “China and Russia want Greenland” to the detriment of the US.
“Nobody will touch this sacred piece of land, especially since the national security of the United States, and the world at large, is at stake,” Trump wrote.
The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said recently that Greenland’s defence is a “common concern” for the whole of Nato. The Guardian reported that European troops had deployed to Greenland, in part, to establish what a more sustained ground deployment on the territory could look like, and partly to reassure the US that European Nato members were serious about Arctic security.
Fewer than one in five of Americans approve of Trump’s efforts to acquire Greenland, a poll published on Thursday by Reuters/Ipsos found. Both Democrats and Republicans oppose the effort, and only 4% of Americans think the US should take Greenland using military force.
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