In a move that has shaken the foundations of the transatlantic alliance, President Donald Trump announced sweeping new tariffs against eight of America’s closest NATO partners, demanding they acquiesce to the U.S. purchase of Greenland—a self-governing territory whose people and sovereign government have resoundingly said is not for sale.
The escalation, treating allied nations as economic adversaries in a real estate negotiation, marks one of the most severe tests of the 75-year-old North Atlantic Treaty Organization in its history.
The President declared that a 10% tariff on all goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland will take effect February 1.
He warned the duty would skyrocket to 25% on June 1 and remain until “a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland”.
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Justifying the threat, Trump asserted on social media that “China and Russia want Greenland, and there is not a thing that Denmark can do about it,” adding that “Only the United States of America, under PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP, can play in this game”.
The response from European capitals was swift and severe, uniting leaders in defense of sovereignty and international law.
French President Emmanuel Macron stated, “No intimidation nor threat will influence us—neither in Ukraine, nor in Greenland, nor anywhere else in the world,” calling the tariff threats “unacceptable”.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivered a rare direct rebuke, saying, “Applying tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of NATO allies is completely wrong”.
The European Union’s top leadership warned of a “dangerous downward spiral”.
“Tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa in a joint statement, pledging that “Europe will remain united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty”.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas noted the strategic damage, saying, “China and Russia must be having a field day. They are the ones who benefit from divisions among allies”.
The crisis strikes at the heart of NATO’s purpose.
The alliance was founded in 1949 on a pact of collective defense, enshrined in Article 5, which treats an attack on one member as an attack on all. Several NATO countries deployed military forces to Greenland to establish a defense against any aggression.
The countries now facing U.S. economic coercion include some of NATO’s original signatories: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, and others that first allied for mutual protection in the wake of World War II.
The President’s actions effectively turn the logic of the alliance inside out.
Instead of consulting with the 31 other members under the treaty’s political provisions, the administration is leveraging trade against them to extract sovereign territory from a fellow member.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen summarized the surreal breach after meetings in Washington, stating, “It’s clear that the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland”.
The policy has sparked significant bipartisan opposition in the United States, where lawmakers warn it weakens American security. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), co-chairs of the Senate NATO Observer Group, issued a joint statement arguing, “There is no need, or desire, for a costly acquisition or hostile military takeover of Greenland when our Danish and Greenlandic allies are eager to work with us”. They warned the rhetoric “helps adversaries like Putin and Xi who want to see NATO divided”.
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska called the tariffs “unnecessary, punitive, and a profound mistake,” while Senator Thom Tillis added the move is “bad for America, bad for American businesses and bad for America’s allies”.
Public sentiment mirrors this division.
A Quinnipiac University poll found 55% of American voters oppose the United States trying to buy Greenland, with only 67% of Republican voters in support.
On the ground in the Arctic, the political will the White House seeks to override is nonexistent. A poll from January 2025 showed 85% of Greenlanders oppose joining the United States, with only 6% in favor.
Thousands protested in Copenhagen and Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, this weekend, waving flags and chanting “Greenland is for Greenlanders”.
The Danish government has repeatedly and unequivocally stated Greenland is not for sale.
In response to U.S. security concerns, Denmark and several European allies had recently begun small-scale military planning exercises in Greenland, a move they described as enhancing Arctic security in full transparency.
The Trump administration has interpreted these lawful actions among allies as a provocation worthy of economic retaliation.
As EU ambassadors convene for an emergency meeting and NATO’s Secretary General prepares for crisis talks, the alliance faces a threat from within its own leadership.
The United States is not only NATO’s most powerful member but also the country that for generations has been its strategic anchor. To now see that power wielded to coercively strip territory from a founding member represents a fundamental breakdown of trust.
The implications extend far beyond tariffs or a single island.
They strike at whether an alliance built on shared democratic values and voluntary cooperation can survive when its strongest member operates on a doctrine of transactional coercion.
As one European official put it, the world is watching to see if the partnership that secured the peace for generations will be fractured at the bargaining table at gunpoint.
The cost of this “deal,” if pursued, may ultimately be calculated not in dollars, but in the disintegration of the very security architecture it purports to defend.
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