President Donald Trump ruled out using military force to acquire Greenland from the Kingdom of Denmark during his speech at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday.
Trump has demanded that Greenland be handed over to the U.S. for national security purposes and intends to impose tariffs on European countries until they agree to give the U.S. complete control of the island. The president said that he neither wants nor will “use force” to acquire ownership of Greenland.
“We never asked for anything, and we never got anything. 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. Okay, now everyone’s saying, ‘oh, good.’ 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,” Trump said.
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Trump also announced during his remarks that the U.S. wants Greenland in order to build a Golden Dome missile defense system, which intends to use next-generation technology to target ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles capable of striking the homeland with either conventional or nuclear warheads, according to the Department of Defense. He has repeatedly said that the Golden Dome is a necessary step to prevent Russia or China from taking control of the land, adding that Denmark lacks the capability to defend Greenland from either adversary.
Greenland is strategically located between the U.S. and Russia and is rich in critical minerals, which raises concerns among the U.S. about Russia or China’s intentions.
The U.S. is planning to impose a 10% tariff on Denmark, France, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands beginning on Feb. 1 for opposing the takeover of Greenland. The rate will rise to 25% on June 1 and remain in place until the U.S. achieves what he called a “Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.”
European leaders across the continent asserted that they will not be “intimidated” by these tactics in response to Trump’s tariff announcement.
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