European allies breathed a sigh of relief Thursday after President Trump caved on his divisive demand to take over Greenland, which had appeared to threaten the very future of the NATO alliance.
With few details emerging about Trump’s supposed “framework of a future deal” on Greenland, it doesn’t appear European allies or Denmark and Greenland have made any real concessions.
“We’re going to have total access to Greenland,” Trump said in a Fox Business interview with Maria Bartiromo. “We’re going to have all the military access we want.”
Trump said the deal would also allow the U.S. to install portions of the planned Golden Dome missile defense system on Greenland, which is a semi-autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.
But the U.S. already had the right to as much military access to Greenland as it wanted, including for the nascent defense system.
Trump Wednesday scrapped the tariffs he recently threatened to impose on eight European nations who opposed his takeover bid.
“We are making steps into that right direction,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said. “I welcome President Trump’s remarks … this is the right way to go.”
Denmark and Greenland officials said Thursday that they hadn’t agreed to any new deal and belittled Trump’s announcement of an agreement hashed out with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen Thursday welcomed Trump’s flip-flop, saying the country is happy to hold talks with Washington on the missile defense plan.
“We can negotiate all political aspects — security, investment, the economy,” she said. “But we cannot negotiate our sovereignty.”
Trump quickly turned the page from Greenland, which he once claimed was a historic necessity for the U.S., to tout his newly formed Board of Peace plan Thursday.
White House officials claimed Trump had never planned to follow through on the threats to allies he reiterated as recently as a few hours before the turnaround in a bellicose speech to leaders gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
In the speech, Trump insisted the U.S. would take nothing less than total sovereignty over Greenland, although he did promise not to grab the territory by force.
He pointedly did not even mention the right of Greenland’s 57,000 people to have a say on their own future, instead suggesting the U.S. should have permanently occupied the island after World War II to exploit its mineral riches.
Some reports said a face-saving measure in Trump’s proposed deal might allow the U.S. to claim full sovereignty over their military bases, similar to an arrangement the United Kingdom has with the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
Meanwhile, global financial markets extended their bounce-back rally after Trump’s ugly threats sparked a big selloff earlier in the week. Traders said the rebound marked a return of the “TACO trade,” a reference to the acronym for Trump Always Chickens Out.
