U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks throughout a “Nice, Historic Funding in Rural Well being Roundtable” within the East Room of the White Home on Jan. 16, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Photos
President Donald Trump stated Friday he might impose tariffs on nations “if they do not go together with Greenland.”
“We want Greenland for nationwide safety. So I could try this,” Trump stated on the White Home throughout a health-care-related occasion.
The feedback present Trump, whose push to accumulate Greenland for the U.S. has grown more and more aggressive in latest months, turning to one among his favourite instruments for leveraging energy over overseas nations.
The White Home didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for added data on Trump’s remarks.
The Trump administration has beforehand stated it’s weighing a number of choices, together with using the U.S. army, as a way to take over the Danish territory.
Trump asserts it’s important that America personal Greenland — regardless that the U.S. already maintains a army base there — due to nationwide safety considerations posed by China and Russia.
The White Home has additionally stated the U.S. is contemplating making a proposal to purchase the Arctic island. However Greenland and Denmark have repeatedly insisted that the territory shouldn’t be on the market and has no want to be absorbed into America.
Trump’s suggestion that he might wield tariffs to get his approach on Greenland got here after he described an identical technique to drive overseas nations to lift their drug costs.
Trump has pushed to decrease the price of U.S. medication by mandating that home costs match decrease ones paid abroad.
On the White Home occasion Friday, Trump stated he threatened the leaders of a number of nations to both increase drug costs as a part of a “most favored nations” deal, or else face heavy tariffs on all their imports to the U.S.
“I could try this for Greenland too. I could put a tariff on nations if they do not go together with Greenland, as a result of we want Greenland for nationwide safety,” Trump stated.
A delegation from Greenland and Denmark, after assembly with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Thursday, stated they’ve a “elementary disagreement” with Trump.
Trump has vastly expanded the federal government’s use of tariffs since retaking workplace, elevating the general common tariff price to an estimated 17%.
A lot of his broadest levies have been invoked utilizing the Worldwide Emergency Financial Powers Act, or IEEPA. The administration’s use of that regulation has been repeatedly challenged, and a number of courts have discovered the actions illegal.
The dispute has been elevated to the Supreme Court docket, which may quickly ship its ruling on the legality of Trump’s IEEPA tariffs.
Trump has claimed that his agenda would unravel if the excessive courtroom guidelines in opposition to him.
“I hope we win the Supreme Court docket case, as a result of if we do not, [it’d] be a disgrace for our nation,” he stated Friday.
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