President Donald Trump said he could impose tariffs on countries that refuse to support U.S. control of Greenland, escalating pressure on allies as lawmakers seek to ease tensions with Denmark and Greenlandic leaders.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
President Donald Trump said Friday that he may punish countries with tariffs if they do not support the United States taking control of Greenland, signaling a potential escalation in his administration’s effort to press allies on the issue.
“I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland,” Trump said, without offering details on which nations could be targeted or how such measures would be applied. “We need Greenland for national security.”
The comments came as a bipartisan congressional delegation met with Danish and Greenlandic lawmakers in Copenhagen in an effort to reduce tensions following months of increasingly blunt rhetoric from Trump regarding the Arctic island. Trump has repeatedly argued that the United States should control Greenland, a semiautonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, which is a NATO ally of the United States.
Earlier this week, Trump said that any outcome short of Greenland being under U.S. control would be “unacceptable,” intensifying concerns among European allies. His suggestion Friday that tariffs could be used as leverage marked the first time he publicly raised trade penalties as a possible tool in the dispute.
Diplomatic engagement has continued alongside the rhetoric. Earlier in the week, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland traveled to Washington for meetings with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Those talks failed to resolve what officials described as deep disagreements over Greenland’s status and future, but they did result in an agreement to establish a working group.
Public accounts of that working group’s purpose diverged sharply afterward, with Danish officials and the White House offering differing interpretations of its scope and intent.
Greenland remains a self-governing territory under Danish sovereignty, controlling its own domestic affairs while Denmark retains authority over defense and foreign policy. Trump’s renewed emphasis on tariffs adds a new dimension to an already sensitive geopolitical issue involving U.S. security interests, alliance politics, and Arctic strategy.
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