Trump’s Greenland ‘Deal’ Appears To Exist Only In His Head

WASHINGTON – Despite “psychologically” needing to acquire Greenland, President Donald Trump on Thursday headed back to the United States with just “the framework” of an agreement that appears to exist only in his own mind.

Weeks of antagonising both Denmark and all of Nato with threats of tariffs and even war, in Trump’s telling, won the United States key concessions in the Danish territory following a one-on-one meeting with the alliance’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“We’re getting everything we wanted – total security, total access to everything,” Trump bragged to Fox Business on Thursday morning, acknowledging that the details are still being worked out. “Essentially, it’s total access. There’s no end. There’s no time limit.”

Yet Trump could barely begin his victory lap for his claimed achievement before it began falling apart. Rutte – who notwithstanding his strategy of continually praising Trump to avoid conflicts felt the need Wednesday to publicly correct Trump’s false claim about Nato willingness to protect the United States if needed – said Greenland’s sovereignty never even came up in his discussion with Trump.

Then, after the White House leaked a claim that the agreement would give the US ownership of “small pockets of land” on Greenland for military purposes, the Danish prime minister announced that that was not true.

“We can negotiate all politically: security, investment, economy,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement on Thursday. “But we can’t negotiate our sovereignty.”

She repeated that message speaking to reporters in Davos: “We have said from the very beginning that a discussion about our status as a sovereign state, it cannot be discussed.”

Added Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Greenland’s prime minister: “We are ready to negotiate a better partnership and so on, but sovereignty is a red line.”

The White House nevertheless insisted that Trump had won a major victory. “If this deal goes through, and President Trump is very hopeful it will, the United States will be achieving all of its strategic goals with respect to Greenland, at very little cost, forever. President Trump is proving once again he’s the ‘Dealmaker in Chief.’ As details are finalised by all parties involved, they will be released accordingly,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said.

Neither Trump nor the White House mentions that a 1951 treaty with Denmark already gives the United States access to the semi-autonomous region for military bases. Indeed, the US had more than a dozen there during the Cold War years and still has one there today.

The one thing Trump did manage with his weekslong campaign to wrest Greenland away from a founding Nato member was to alienate traditional allies in Western Europe even further. “I think it’s sad and totally absurd that we have an American president who’s blackmailing the rest of us trying to get a bit of land, a piece of land, or buy it through threats,” Swedish Finance Minister Elisabeth Evantesson told reporters in Davos this week. “We will never back down.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, complained to world leaders and business executives assembled in Davos that Trump’s desire to own Greenland had distracted from Russia’s existing war of territorial conquest against his country — the largest land war in Europe since World War II.

“Everyone turned attention to Greenland, and it’s clear most leaders simply are not sure what to do about it. And it seems like everyone is just waiting for America to cool down on this topic, hoping it will pass away. But what if it will not?” he said in remarks shortly after meeting with Trump.

He added that if the United States and Europe are truly worried about Russian ships sailing around Greenland, they should seek help from Ukraine, which has proven its ability at sinking Russian vessels in the Black Sea.

“We have the expertise and weapons to ensure not one of those ships remains. They can sink near Greenland, just as they do near Crimea. No problem,” he said. “We will solve this problem with the Russian ships.”