U.S.President Donald Trump arrives at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, in Michigan, U.S., January 13, 2026.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
Eight NATO members’ items despatched to the U.S. will face escalating tariffs “till such time as a Deal is reached for the Full and Complete buy of Greenland,” President Donald Trump introduced Saturday.
The tariffs concentrating on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland will begin at 10% on Feb. 1, Trump wrote in a Fact Social publish.
The tariffs will shoot as much as 25% on June 1, the president mentioned.
His publish recommended that the brand new tariffs on the European allies had been being imposed in response to them transferring troops to Greenland. They took that step because the Trump administration has floated using the U.S. army as a part of its ramped-up efforts to accumulate the Danish territory.
The eight international locations “have journeyed to Greenland, for functions unknown,” Trump wrote. “This can be a very harmful scenario for the Security, Safety, and Survival of our Planet.”
A day earlier, Trump hinted that he could pursue a tariff technique on Greenland much like the one he used to pressure overseas international locations to alter their drug costs.
“I could do this for Greenland too. I could put a tariff on international locations if they do not associate with Greenland, as a result of we want Greenland for nationwide safety,” he mentioned on the White Home on Friday.
Trump’s newest transfer places additional pressure on NATO, the 32-member army alliance established within the aftermath of World Warfare II. The cornerstone of the alliance is an settlement that an assault on any single member is taken into account an assault on all of them.
European leaders have warned that any try by the U.S. to take Greenland by pressure may spell the tip of NATO.
A protester takes half in an illustration to point out assist for Greenland in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Jan. 17, 2026.
Tom Little | Reuters
Trump’s tariff announcement may imply he’s dropping the specter of utilizing the army to realize his longtime objective of taking on the island. But it surely however ratchets up stress on Denmark and the remainder of Europe, which have flatly acknowledged that Greenland is just not on the market.
Trump is an enthusiastic fan of utilizing tariffs as a device for gaining political leverage over different international locations. He has enormously expanded the federal government’s use of the levies over the previous yr, largely by means of the weird invocation of a legislation granting the president some powers in an financial emergency.
The Supreme Court docket may rule as quickly as subsequent week on whether or not to strike down the tariffs imposed beneath that legislation.
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