In his long-anticipated (or dreaded, depending on your vantage point) speech before the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos today, 21 January, US president Trump took the opportunity to insist on his desire to take Greenland as a US territory.
However, Trump also stated that he wouldn’t use force to take the Danish territory. This would, I’m sure, be comforting to the people of Greenland… if Trump’s word were worth as much as the breath it took to voice it.
A potential US invasion of Greenland has been making headlines since America’s sudden attack on Venezuela. The large North American island is an autonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO ally.
In place of military aggression, Trump hammered his flimsy supposition that the US needs Greenland for defence purposes. In fact, he went so far as to suggest that NATO effectively owes Greenland to the US in return for America’s previous contributions to global security.
Trump — ‘They’re very happy with me’
The far-right US leader’s arrival at Davos today was delayed by nearly two hours, reportedly due to a problem with Air Force One. However, the late start to his speech did nothing to lessen his audience, which packed out the hall of the Swiss conference centre.
In an early demonstration of his sheer untrustworthiness, Trump started his speech with a lie:
People are doing very well, they’re very happy with me.
The US administration is currently in the spotlight for disappearing people from its streets, at rates that are remarkable even in a country famed for disappearing people from its streets.
Trump’s net approval rating is -19% among his own populace, with 56% approving and 37% disapproving. He’s dropped two points in the last week alone.
From that damning start, it didn’t take him long to work in a dig at Europe:
certain places in Europe are not even recognisable.
We can argue about it, but there’s no argument. Friends come back from different places – I don’t want to insult anybody – and say, I don’t recognise it. And that’s not in a positive way, that’s in a very negative way.
And I love Europe and I want to see Europe do good, but it’s not heading in the right direction.
‘No-one can secure Greenland’
Trump then meandered through a self-aggrandising spiel about the strength of the US economy under his rule. Eventually, he arrived at the topic of Greenland — though he mused that he’d thought of cutting that section of the speech.
Regarding the island territory, he stated that:
I have tremendous respect for the people of Greenland and the people of Denmark.
But every Nato member has an obligation to defend their own territory.
No-one can secure Greenland apart from the US
As a reminder, Greenland hasn’t been under threat in recent years by anyone other than Trump himself.
The president went on the blather about Denmark falling to Germany during WW2. This temporarily severed Denmark’s connection to Greenland, which was instead occupied by the US to prevent a Nazi invasion.
Trump then insisted that this occupation conferred ownership of Greenland to the US:
Without us, you’d be speaking German and Japanese perhaps.
After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that? How ungrateful are they now.
The US military bases in Greenland were part of a wartime agreement with Denmark. They meant precisely nothing in terms of US ownership of the territory.
In fact, Harry Truman — the US president at the time — tried to buy Greenland in 1946. Back then, as it did now, Denmark rejected the offer.
‘That’s our territory’
At several points throughout his speech, Trump insisted that America’s contributions to NATO were disproportionate to its returns. He claimed to get “nothing out of NATO”, and commented:
We’re there for Nato 100%, I’m not sure if they’d be there for us.
Again, another lie. The one and only time that NATO’s Article 5 defence pledge was activated was in response to the 9/11 attacks.
Then, at last, Trump got around to addressing his threats against Greenland:
We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that.
I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force. All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland.
If only the creep hadn’t been lying throughout his entire speech, that statement might actually be worth a damn. And, of course, it didn’t take long before geopolitics’ biggest schoolyard bully got back to thinly-veiled threats:
You can say yes and we will be very appreciative, or you can say no and we will remember.
Trump called Greenland “a very small ask” compared to US contributions to NATO, and stated that:
This enormous unsecured Island is actually part of North America, on the northern frontier of the Western Hemisphere. That’s our territory.
Greenland is under NATO protection, such as it’s worth, as a Danish territory — even if Trump insists otherwise. He insisted that the island could play:
a vital role in world peace and world protection.
This, coming from one of — if not the — greatest threats to world peace in our time, Donald Trump himself. The man illegally invaded Venezuela and kidnapped its president earlier this very month. He bombed Iran in the summer and has enabled Israel as it bombed 9 different countries in 2025 alone.
Even now, the mainstream media are rushing to report the ‘confirmation’ that the US won’t invade Greenland.
But then, Trump’s 70-minute speech was littered with lies, half-truths and the deluded ramblings of a dangerous egocentric. His word is worth nothing because he believes in nothing but himself, his money and his power. What’s one more lie among a lifetime’s worth?
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.