Donald Trump is speaking at Davos, ahead of meetings with other world leaders. So far, he doesn’t appear to be backing down on his plan to take Greenland. Watch and follow live below.
Wednesday 21 January 2026 17:14, UK
Our business and economics correspondent Paul Kelso caught up with Donald Trump after his speech earlier.
He asked the US president why he was being very disrespectful of the UK and Europe.
Watch his response…
Donald Trump appeared to be “making a speech to himself” on stage at the World Economic Forum, according to our military analyst Michael Clarke.
While attention may have been fixed on him for remarks on Greenland or Ukraine, Trump instead just “riffed and riffed and riffed” and eventually “he was making a speech to himself”.
“He was just talking to himself in a way, because he was musing on all sorts of things,” Clarke said.
In terms of Greenland, though, Clarke added Trump may have “left the door open” to negotiation.
Watch his full remarks…
By Diana Magnay, international correspondent
“I don’t have to use force, I don’t want to use force, I won’t use force.”
Take anything from the US President’s long, discursive speech at Davos and it should be this promise not to take Greenland militarily.
But he is still determined to get his hands on it.
A post-imperial international order
He wants to start “immediate discussions”.
He doesn’t see why there should be such a colossal outcry over what he calls a “big piece of ice” with hardly any people on it. And he doesn’t see what’s wrong with territorial acquisitions.
It has happened throughout history, he says. He sees no reason why it shouldn’t happen now.
Except that imperialist notions of international relations were shrugged off for good reason more than a century ago.
Not, perhaps, by Vladimir Putin, peeling off a large chunk of Ukraine for himself and declaring it his – but the international rules-based order established in the wake of the Second World War has at its foundation respect for national sovereignty and self-determination.
It is not up to Donald Trump as to whether or not he gets Greenland; it is up to Greenland’s 56,000 inhabitants to decide what they want to happen to their land, whether they want to sell – and to Denmark which manages Greenland’s defence and security and quite a lot more besides.
Tough negotiations looming
Donald Trump wouldn’t put much flesh on the bones of what a negotiation might look like, but he does seem to be preparing himself for one.
The building blocks of his logic appear to be that US ownership of Greenland is the only way of preserving international security from “the bad guys”, that Greenland costs a lot for Denmark to run and that NATO somehow needs to step up.
There is an opening here that Europe, and NATO, must tread their way through with great care, as the threat of tariffs loom over them like the Sword of Damocles and the future of the military alliance remains in question.
The European Parliament has frozen work on the EU-US trade deal in the face of Donald Trump’s tariff threats, a decision announced shortly after he finished speaking at Davos (see the post just below this one).
He won’t like that. But both sides will have to play tough before any agreement is reached, if an agreement can be reached.
The stakes are still painfully high.
Some news to bring you away from Davos, the legislative body of the European Union has paused work on the formal approval and implementation of the trade deal it reached with the US last year.
It comes after Donald Trump ramped up the rhetoric on acquiring Greenland, and threatened eight European countries who didn’t support his stance with tariffs.
“Given the continued and escalating threats, including tariff threats, against Greenland and Denmark, and their European allies, we have been left with no alternative but to suspend work” on the deal, said Bernd Lange, the chairman of the European Parliament’s international trade committee.
“Until the US decides to re-engage on a path of cooperation rather than confrontation,” no steps to move the deal forward would be taken, Lange said in a statement.
“Our sovereignty and territorial integrity are at stake,” he added in a post on X.
“Business as usual impossible.”
What did the deal involve?
As our US partner network NBC News reports, the core of the deal was a cap on US tariffs applied to most imports from the EU at just 15%.
The rate was among the lowest received by any trading partner last year.
Some imports from the EU, such as generic pharmaceuticals would have had all tariffs removed.
In exchange for the lower tariff rate, the European Union, America’s largest trading partner, would have lowered tariffs on some goods it imports from the US.
Argentine President Javier Milei is speaking now at Davos.
Watch our stream at the top of the page to listen.
Even after his lengthy speech, Donald Trump has been making further comments to a press huddle in Davos.
Asked why he was disrespecting Europe and the UK by our business and economics correspondent Paul Kelso, Trump says: “They have to change their ways.
“Between immigration and energy, if they don’t change, bad things will happen.”
By Mark Stone, US correspondent, in Washington DC
Donald Trump certainly didn’t back down on Greenland but beyond the aggressive bluster was there somewhat of a climbdown from the American president?
He appeared to rule out the use of force to acquire Greenland.
“We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that,” he said.
“That’s probably the biggest statement I made, because people thought I would use force. I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force. All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland, where we already had it as a trustee, but respectfully returned it back to Denmark not long ago.”
A few minutes later, he said: “We want a piece of ice for world protection. They have a choice.
“You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no, and we will remember.”
Trump makes case for ‘Iceland’
The president devoted a significant portion of his Davos speech to the issue of Greenland.
Despite mistakenly calling it ‘Iceland’ on a number of occasions, he sought to provide his justification for wanting to acquire the Danish territory.
“It’s the United States alone that can protect this giant mass of land, this giant piece of ice, develop it and improve it and make it so that it’s good for Europe and safe for Europe and good for us.
“And that’s the reason I’m seeking immediate negotiations to once again discuss the acquisition in Greenland by the United States…. This would greatly enhance the security of the entire Alliance… the NATO Alliance,” he said.
He began with a softer tone.
“I have tremendous respect for both the people of Greenland and the people of Denmark, tremendous respect, but every NATO ally has an obligation to be able to defend their own territory.
“And the fact is, no nation or group of nations is in any position to be able to secure Greenland, other than the United States.”
But Trump then went on to dismiss Greenland as an uninhabited piece of land.
Articulating his argument that Denmark would be unable to defend it (ignoring the fact that the NATO alliance as a whole would be required to defend it), he said:
“We saw this in World War Two, when Denmark fell to Germany after just six hours of fighting and was totally unable to defend either itself or Greenland.”
He added: “Right now, you’d all be speaking German and little Japanese.”
Dismissing defence treaties
Trump’s explanation for why the existing defence treaty with Denmark (which allows the US to put as much military infrastructure as it likes in Greenland) isn’t enough was startling and revealing.
“All we’re asking for is to get Greenland, including the right title and ownership, because you need the ownership to defend it. You can’t defend it on a lease. Number one, legally, it’s not defensible that way… And number two, psychologically, who the hell wants to defend a license agreement or a lease?”
In saying that, the president appeared to dismiss the basis of all America’s defence treaties.
The threat of force against Greenland may be reduced, for now, but this transatlantic crisis remains critical.
Donald Trump is again talking about NATO, saying the alliance has treated the US “very unfairly”.
He adds that the US has taken care of NATO for years, and it is time for “NATO to step up”.
The US president claims that without him, WW3 would have already started.
“I think Putin would have gone all the way… if Kamala was elected or Joe or any of those… I think you could have ended up in World War Three,” he says.
Donald Trump is continuing to list his achievements, claiming “we’ve gotten most” of the criminals out of the US.
But, he says the US immigration agency ICE “gets beat up by stupid people from leadership in Minnesota”.
“We actually are helping Minnesota so much, but they don’t appreciate it… most places do,” Trump adds.
“You know, Washington DC is the safest place now in the United States. It was a very dangerous place to walk, and now you can walk with your wife and your kids right through the middle of the city.”
For context: An ICE agent shot dead US national Renee Good, who was a mother of three and had recently moved to Minnesota.
She is believed to have never been charged with anything involving law enforcement beyond a traffic ticket, the Associated Press reported.
The prospect of further US tariffs on European countries over Greenland has been a source of huge discussion in recent days.
In the next part of his speech, Donald Trump turns to his relationship with Switzerland – where he is currently being hosted.
“We put a 30% tariff on Switzerland and all hell broke loose,” he begins.
Trump says he then lowered the tariff on the European nation as he didn’t want to “hurt” it.
But he says Switzerland is just one example of “many places” that are “making a fortune” because of the US, and that the US is “keeping the whole world afloat”.
“I’ve been very fair, and I gave them a tariff and it was fine,” Trump continues.
“But I realised that without us, it’s not Switzerland anymore. Without us, it’s not any of the countries that are represented here.
“And we want to work with the countries. We’re not looking to destroy them.”
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free