Donald Trump has promised not to use military force to invade Greenland—but warned he would “remember” if Denmark refused to hand over the coveted “piece of ice.”
In a 70-minute speech at the World Economic Forum, the president also demanded “immediate negotiations” to annex the island and accused European allies of being “ungrateful” towards him.
His ultimatum to Denmark appeared to back away from his earlier insistence that military force was a possibility if his demands were not met.
The term “TACO Trump”—“Trump Always Chickens Out”—was coined by traders on Wall Street last year, after the president made a series of threats and reversals following his tariff announcement.
“Until the last few days when I told them about Iceland, they loved me,” said Trump said of NATO, confusing Greenland for a completely different country about 200 miles away.
“They called me ‘Daddy’ last time,” the 79-year-old president added, referencing the name NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte once used to charm Trump about his leadership within the alliance.
“A very smart man said, ‘he’s our Daddy’. I went from running it to being a terrible human being.”
Trump’s comments in Davos came amid escalating anger over his renewed push to bring Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, under U.S. control.
The president has eyed off the island since his first term, but ramped up his bid to seize it after the successful capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, insisting it is vital for national security.
In his speech, he took particular aim at Denmark, which has rebuked his demands as “totally unacceptable”.
Last week, Danish foreign minister Lokke Rasmussen also accused the president of making up “a narrative” about China asserting control over Greenland unless America controlled it first.
“It’s not a true narrative that we have Chinese warships all around the place,” he said after meeting Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the White House to discuss the issue.
“According to our intelligence, we haven’t had Chinese warships in Greenland for a decade or so.”
However, Trump doubled down at the World Economic Forum, reminding Denmark of how it fell to Germany in World War 2, prompting the U.S. to send troops to defend Greenland “at great cost and expense.”
“We won the war,” he told the audience. “Without us right now you’d all be speaking German and a little Japanese, perhaps.”
But in an ominous warning, Trump also said he would “remember” if Europe doesn’t accept his push to take over the island.
“We want a piece of ice for world protection, and they won’t give it. We’ve never asked for anything else, and we could have kept that piece of land, and we didn’t,” he said.
“So they have a choice. You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative, or you can say no, and we will remember.”
Trump arrived in Davos on Wednesday morning, just as the European Union suspended its work on a trade deal it had brokered with the Trump administration last summer in protest at his demands to acquire Greenland and the accompanying threats of fresh tariffs.
He looked visibly tired as he disembarked from the stairs of his plane onto the tarmac, and then took the stage at the forum to give a low-energy address that critics variously described as “disrespectful and dangerous” to “unhinged.”
“We’ve gone from leader of the free world to the bully in the playground,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear told CNN from Davos.
Trump began by acknowledging he had friends and “some enemies” in the room. He then talked up his first year in office before veering from one topic to another, ranting about everything from wind farms and Somali “pirates,” to the “rigged” 2020 election and “crooked media.”
But in an embarrassing blunder, the president also repeatedly confused Greenland with Iceland.
The former is a large, mostly ice-covered, autonomous territory of Denmark, while Iceland is a smaller, independent island nation with a milder climate and active volcanoes.
“They’re not there for us on Iceland, I can tell you,” Trump said of NATO.
“Their stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland.”
