Donald Trump’s new year’s resolution for 2026 appears to have been to push everything to its breaking point. Ice thugs roam the streets of American cities, abducting people in unmarked vans, while the Trump administration defends the agent who killed Renee Good in cold blood in Minneapolis.
Breaking all tenets of international law, the US abducted Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, while Trump asserts the right to “run” the country. And now he seems intent on shattering the transatlantic alliance, with his increasingly aggressive threats that the US will take Greenland the “easy way” or the “hard way”.
At Davos, Trump repeated his determination to possess what he keeps calling “that piece of ice”. “You can say yes, and we’ll be very appreciative, or you can say no and we will remember,” he said.
At Davos, world leaders were presented with what they will have recognised as typical Trump fare: a speech that was rambling, self-aggrandising and full of exaggerations, delusions, resentments and lies. World leaders listened as a tired-looking, monotone Trump began by bragging about mostly fictitious economic accomplishments during his first year in office and going off on bizarre tangents such as his belief that only “stupid people” buy windmills.
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He claimed “tremendous respect” for Denmark and Greenland, even while demanding that the US take the island over. He said he wanted Europe to be strong, while relying on its weakness to succumb to this American demand.
The main revelation of Wednesday afternoon’s speech was his assertion that he won’t use force. By now, few listening trust Trump’s promises, and even before making this pledge he mused that if the US did use “excessive strength and force” then “we would frankly be unstoppable”.
But it has always seemed unlikely that the US would actually invade Greenland. He remains wary of extended military operations, preferring instead spectacular one-offs such as the kidnapping of Maduro.
He did threaten Europe with economic warfare were it not to surrender Greenland, though after his “very productive meeting” with Nato secretary general of Nato Mark Rutte he walked back from the threat to impose tariffs, his favourite tool of intimidation.
Trump did not offer any reasonable explanation for why the US needs Greenland, which seems to be a personal fixation of his. He thinks only the US can “secure” the territory, even though there is already a US military base there and it is part of the Nato alliance. His policy of resurrecting the Monroe Doctrine of US hemispheric dominance was evident in his assertion that Greenland lies in “our hemisphere”.
Trump seems determined to destroy the world order that arose out of the second World War when the US secured an economic, military and political alliance with western Europe. That alliance was tested at times – from the Vietnam War to the Iraq War – but he is the first president to question its desirability. His suspicion of Nato has been a frequent talking point since his first presidency, but not until his demand for Greenland had he found an issue that could actually shatter the alliance.
The US once saw western European nations as reliable junior partners in geopolitics and the most important markets for American goods. Trump views them as freeloaders, benefiting from American military might without paying their fair share.
He lectured leaders at Davos that they would be “speaking German” had the US not saved them during the second World War. And, hearkening back to the US protection of Greenland during that war, he said it was “stupid” for the US to have “given it back” to Denmark – a claim without foundation. In reality, Greenland has been part of the Kingdom of Denmark for centuries, a fact both established under international law and recognised by the US.
Now, he is implying, Greenland is the price that Europe must pay in recompense for all that the US has done for it: “A very small ask compared to what we have given them for many, many decades.”
While Trump declared that “we believe deeply in the bonds we share with Europe”, his administration obviously has nothing but contempt for European nations. His speech reiterated the point made in his recent national security strategy: that Europe is bringing about “civilisational erasure” by allowing the inward migration of non-Europeans. Trump views Europe as weak and he clearly enjoys threatening its leaders and watching them squirm.
He is testing the limits of both domestic and world politics. There is simply no groundswell of support among the American public for his interest in Greenland. One poll showed that 75 per cent of Americans are opposed taking it by force. A bipartisan delegation of US congresspeople visited Denmark earlier this week to express their support to it. Even many in the Maga movement are opposed. While Trump proclaimed at Davos, “People are very happy with me,” the reality is the opposite.
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To this point, European leaders have done their utmost to placate Trump. They have remained largely silent about his undermining of American democracy and his flouting of international law. And yet they have been forced to push back against Trump’s demand for Greenland. European leaders have been clear that they will not accede to Trump’s will. Tánaiste Simon Harris responded to the speech by saying that Europe would “respond without delay, in a united fashion, to any tariffs” the US imposes.
Trump, of course, is aware that his threatened punitive tariffs would have led to an escalating trade war, damaging to both sides. While there is reason to fear the damage to the Irish economy, we should remember that this would also hurt the US economy and thereby make Trump even more unpopular. He knows this too.
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The domestic and world backlash to Trump’s demand for Greenland would have stopped any other American president in his tracks long before now. But it is not clear that it will slow Trump down. He is living out a dream of possessing power without limits. Greenland is emerging as his Moby Dick: the white whale that he is obsessed with conquering. And even should this crisis pass without any serious rupture of the transatlantic alliance, how can European nations possibly rely on the US as an ally with Trump in office and with most of the Republican Party embracing his contempt for his European allies?
Daniel Geary is Mark Piggott professor in US history at Trinity College Dublin
