President Trump was reportedly outraged over the deployment of European troops to Greenland over the weekend for military exercises that some government officials believe may have escalated tensions between the US and Europe.
The sudden flurry of European military activity in Greenland – ostensibly part of a “reconnaissance” mission ahead of future NATO exercises – “baffled” Washington and provoked Trump to threaten tariffs on the nations putting boots on the ground of the Arctic island, the Times of London reported on Tuesday.
“I couldn’t understand the PR part of the deployment,” one government adviser in a European country told the Times. “That does not at all excuse Trump. But I think it enabled some in his vicinity to escalate the issue.”
Trump may have interpreted the troop deployments as a “gesture of hostility,” according to the outlet, and it doesn’t appear the nations involved considered whether the president could take it as provocation.
The hastily arranged “scoping mission” started coming together last Wednesday when Denmark, which administers Greenland as an autonomous territory, ominously announced that it would expand its troop presence on the island because “geopolitical tensions have spread to the Arctic.”
Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen noted Denmark’s armed forces, in coordination with “Arctic and European allies,” would “explore in the coming weeks how an increased presence and exercise activity in the Arctic can be implemented.”
France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom all pledged small numbers of troops to join Danish forces in Greenland.
“The ask was to send someone as part of a wider European effort to conduct [reconnaissance], not as a show of force,” one source told the outlet.
UK Defense Minister John Healey claimed the deployment was “part of NATO’s planned exercise program.”
“And that’s exactly what this reconnaissance mission is designed to do. To lay the groundwork for an exercise, a multinational exercise within NATO later this year,” he added, in an interview on British television.
In contrast to Healey’s claim about the mission, one diplomatic source described doing “something together” in Greenland as Europe’s “solution” to the dispute with Trump.
Danish Army Chief Peter Boysen told TV2 in Denmark that he expects military exercises in Greenland to continue on a “more permanent” basis.
The Times of London reported that behind the scenes, some government officials were “nervous that the mission could backfire.”
By Friday, when images of Danish military aircraft landing in Greenland were publicized by Denmark, “confusion” about the mission began swirling on social media.
“If the point of it was to send a message then the message should have been clearer,” a US official said. “The announcement of it should have been 100% clear.”
An “irate” Trump exacted revenge on the nations participating in the exercise by announcing the US would impose a 10% tariff – that could jump to 25% – on goods from the countries involved in the mission, unless a deal is signed for “the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland” by the US.
