{"id":197377,"date":"2026-01-19T01:41:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T01:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/europe-may-have-reached-its-breaking-point-with-trump-over-greenland-tariffs-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T01:41:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T01:41:43","slug":"europe-may-have-reached-its-breaking-point-with-trump-over-greenland-tariffs-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/europe-may-have-reached-its-breaking-point-with-trump-over-greenland-tariffs-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe may have reached its breaking point with Trump over Greenland tariffs – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Has Europe had enough?
After more than a year of cautious diplomacy, high-stakes flattery<\/a> and efforts to keep trans-Atlantic cooperation intact, European leaders now find themselves confronting perhaps the sharpest challenge yet from the White House.
President Donald Trump<\/a> said Saturday he will impose sweeping new tariffs on eight key European allies<\/a> that will ratchet up <\/strong>unless Denmark agrees to hand over Greenland, resurrecting one of his most provocative foreign policy obsessions as he threatens the territory of a NATO ally.
The ultimatum marks the latest escalation in a pattern that has seen Europe repeatedly forced onto the back foot during Trump\u2019s second administration, weighing economic and security ties with the U.S. against a White House increasingly willing to weaponize trade<\/a> against its closest partners.
But this time the response has been sharper.
European leaders moved quickly to convene an emergency meeting on Sunday, condemning the tariff threats as unacceptable and warning of serious consequences for trans-Atlantic relations.
The episode has raised fresh questions about how much longer Europe is willing to absorb pressure from Washington in the name of a NATO alliance<\/a> that appears to be bursting at the seams.
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland are facing new 10% tariffs <\/strong>until \u201ca Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland,\u201d the U.S. leader said Saturday, with duties increasing to 25% if a deal is not reached by June 1.
It is a familiar position for European leaders, who spent much of last spring negotiating with Washington as Trump sought to reshape global trade through tariffs. <\/strong>The U.S. already has a framework agreement with the European Union capping tariffs at 15%, alongside a separate deal with the U.K. limiting duties to 10%.
Trump did not say whether the newly threatened tariffs would override those agreements or be imposed on top of them.
But the latest threats have drawn signs of fatigue and impatience with the U.S., as European leaders, long reluctant to confront Trump directly, appear newly united in defending Denmark\u2019s territory and pushing back against what they see as an unacceptable escalation.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has often acted as an intermediary between Washington and Europe in the effort to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, while the U.K. was the first nation to strike a deal to reverse or cut some of Trump\u2019s earlier tariffs.
But Starmer said Saturday that Trump\u2019s plans to impose tariffs on European allies were \u201ccompletely wrong,\u201d a rare departure from what had appeared to be a policy of U.S. appeasement that has drawn criticism from lawmakers in his own country.
\u201cApplying tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of NATO allies is completely wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will of course be pursuing this directly with the U.S. administration.\u201d
French President Emmanuel Macron, <\/strong>who has recently issued dire warnings<\/a> about the collapse of U.S.-Europe relations, said \u201cno amount of intimidation\u201d will persuade European nations to change their course on Greenland. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson warned the E.U. would not be \u201cblackmailed\u201d by Trump, while Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr St\u00f8re said \u201cthreats have no place among allies.\u201d
In a joint statement, the eight nations threatened with tariffs said Sunday that \u201ctariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral.\u201d
\u201cWe will continue to stand united and coordinated in our response,\u201d the statement said, ahead of an emergency E.U. meeting.
Trump has stood firm in his belief that the U.S. requires Greenland for its national security, and has repeated assertions that Russia and China will try to seize Greenland otherwise.
\u201cThere is not a thing that Denmark can do about it,\u201d Trump wrote, referring to Danish defense capabilities as <\/strong>\u201ctwo dogsleds as protection.\u201d
European allies, for their part, argue that any security threats to Greenland should be handled together. Danish Foreign Minister Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen will visit Norway, the U.K. and Sweden over the next five days, the ministry said Sunday, noting that the main topic will be the security situation in the Arctic.
\u201cWhat our countries have in common is that we all agree that NATO\u2019s role in the Arctic must be strengthened, and I look forward to discussing how,\u201d a statement said.
The president\u2019s latest threat has called into question the European strategy of \u201cbuttering up Mr. Trump,\u201d Michael Bociurkiw, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council\u2019s Eurasia Center, told NBC News on Sunday, noting Trump\u2019s latest threats had escalated the situation from \u201cslingshot to bazooka.\u201d
Even if European nations were able to come to some kind of agreement with Trump, he told NBC News, \u201che\u2019s well known for changing his mind or unleveling the playing field, and this is what they have to understand.\u201d
Bociurkiw said Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a>, who announced lower tariffs with China last week after meeting with its leader Xi Jinping, had done the \u201csmart thing\u201d by going to Beijing and \u201crisking the ire of Mr. Trump.\u201d
\u201cIt shows that he\u2019s acting unilaterally,\u201d he added. \u201cI think that\u2019s the way Europe needs to go.\u201d
While Europe has trodden carefully with Trump in part to avoid upsetting negotiations over the war in Ukraine, his ultimatum over Greenland \u201cmakes no difference at all\u201d to that calculation, one analyst told NBC News, because \u201cnobody had any faith in the United States\u201d to deliver.
\u201cThe confirmation that the U.S. does not have a common security vision with Europe doesn\u2019t change the position of Ukraine,\u201d said Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, a London-based think tank.
\u201cThe threats and promises that we hear from Europeans warning the U.S. that this could mean the end of NATO are ineffective because this is not something which the current U.S. leadership group values,\u201d he added.
The defense of Ukraine, he said, \u201crelies on Europe recognizing its responsibility, rather than any role the U.S. might previously have had.\u201d
In a sign that the two disputes could end up entangled, however, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez warned Sunday that a U.S. invasion of Greenland \u201cwould make Vladimir Putin the happiest man in the world.\u201d
Freddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London.\u00a0
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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