Something in Europe has snapped. Donald Trump doubled down again on Monday, in his insistence that the US needs Greenland for national security reasons. Is he prepared to use force to seize it, journalists asked him? No comment, said the president, sending chills down the spine of Greenland's anxious inhabitants.
Greenland is a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark - a member of the EU and of Nato. President Trump is now leaning heavily on Denmark’s allies in both those organizations to abandon Copenhagen and let the US take control of Greenland, or face punitive taxes on all their exports to the United States.
It's a horror scenario for European economies, which are already in the doldrums. Especially those reliant on exporting to the US, like Germany’s car industry and Italy’s luxury goods market.
On Monday Germany’s finance minister said, we will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed after an emergency meeting with his French counterpart. The Trump threats landed like a slap in the face of European governments, who (separately, in the case of the EU and the UK) had only just settled tariff deals with the US president last year.
Now, European leaders are changing their tactics, signaling a more confrontational approach to Trump, who they have engaged with since he returned to the White House for a second term.
The stakes are high, and while Europe seeks to solidify its position, the outcome will hinge on collective action across the continent, as diverse geopolitical interests converge.
