Davos, Switzerland. US President Donald Trump insisted he wants to “get Greenland, including right, title and ownership,” but he said he wouldn’t employ force to achieve that — using his speech Wednesday at the World Economic Forum to repeatedly deride European allies and vow that NATO shouldn’t stand in the way of US expansionism.

“What I’m asking for is a piece of ice, cold, and poorly located,” Trump said, declaring of NATO: “It’s a very small ask compared to what we have given them for many, many decades.”

“This enormous unsecured island is actually part of North America,” Trump said. “That’s our territory.”

Trump also said that the United States is booming but Europe is “not heading in the right direction.” His ambitions to wrest control of Greenland from NATO ally Denmark threaten to tear apart relations with many of Washington's closest allies.

He tried to focus on his efforts to tame inflation and spur the economy back home. But his appearance at the gathering of global elites focused more on his gripes with other countries.

“I love Europe and I want to see Europe go good, but it’s not heading in the right direction,” Trump said. He added, “We want strong allies, not seriously weakened ones."

Trump also proclaimed that, “When America booms the whole world booms,” and, “You all follow us down and you follow us up.”

His arrival in in the Swiss Alps community of Davos was delayed after a minor electrical issue aboard Air Force One had forced a return to Washington to switch aircraft, but it wasn't expected to push back his scheduled keynote speech.

Billionaires and business leaders sought seats inside the forum’s Congress Hall, which had a capacity of around 1,000, to hear Trump. Michael Dell, founder of the eponymous Dell Technologies, weaved through the crowd to get toward the front of the line. Marc Benioff, the Salesforce chief and a World Economic Forum board member, wiggled his way through the press line to get inside.

Trump is expected to have around five bilateral meetings with foreign leaders, though further details weren't provided. There are more than 60 other heads of state attending the forum.

Tariff Threat Looms Large
Trump came to the international forum at Davos on the heels of threatening steep US import taxes on Denmark and seven other allies unless they negotiate a transfer of the semi-autonomous territory — a concession the European leaders indicated they are not willing to make.

Trump said the tariffs would start at 10% next month and climb to 25% in June, rates that would be high enough to increase costs and slow growth, potentially hurting Trump’s efforts to tamp down the high cost of living.

The president in a text message that circulated among European officials this week also linked his aggressive stance on Greenland to last year’s decision not to award him the Nobel Peace Prize. In the message, he told Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, that he no longer felt “an obligation to think purely of Peace.”

In the midst of an unusual stretch of testing the United States' relations with longtime allies, it seems uncertain what might transpire during Trump's two days in Switzerland. Before Trump spoke, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed, “I will not yield.”

“Britain will not yield on our principles and values about the future of Greenland under threats of tariffs, and that is my clear position,” Starmer said during his weekly questioning in the House of Commons.

Trump promised before leaving the White House, “This will be an interesting trip" and things did indeed get off to a difficult start. There was a small electrical problem on Air Force One, leading the crew to turn around the plane about 30 minutes into the flight out of an abundance of caution.

“It’s clear that we are reaching a time of instability, of imbalances, both from the security and defense point of view, and economic point of view,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in his address to the forum. Macron made no direct mention of Trump but urged fellow leaders to reject acceptance of “the law of the strongest.”

Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned that should Trump move forward with the tariffs, the bloc's response “will be unflinching, united and proportional." She pointedly suggested that Trump's new tariff threat could also undercut a US-EU trade framework reached this summer that the Trump administration worked hard to to seal.

“The European Union and the United States have agreed to a trade deal last July,” von der Leyen said in Davos. “And in politics as in business — a deal is a deal. And when friends shake hands, it must mean something.”

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