By Michael Martina and Jason Lange Reuters

President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to implement a wave of increasing tariffs on European allies until the United States is allowed to buy Greenland, escalating a row over the future of Denmark’s vast Arctic island.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said additional 10% import tariffs would take effect on February 1 on ​goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Great Britain — all already subject to tariffs imposed by Trump.

Those tariffs would increase to 25% on June 1 and would continue until a ‌deal was reached for the U.S. to purchase Greenland, Trump wrote.

Trump has repeatedly insisted he will settle for nothing less than ownership of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. Leaders of both Denmark and Greenland have insisted the island is not for sale and does not want ‌to be part of the United States.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll of U.S. residents this week found that less than one in five respondents support the idea of acquiring Greenland.

TRUMP WANTS GREENLAND FOR SECURITY, MINERALS

The president has repeatedly said Greenland is vital to U.S. security because of its strategic location and large mineral deposits, and has not ruled out using force to take it. European nations this week sent military personnel to the island at Denmark’s request.

“These Countries, who are playing this very dangerous game, have put a level of risk in play that is not tenable or sustainable,” Trump wrote.

Protesters in Denmark and Greenland demonstrated on Saturday against Trump’s demands and called for the territory to be left to determine its own future.

The ⁠countries named by Trump on Saturday have backed Denmark, warning that the U.S. military ‌seizure of a territory in NATO could collapse the military alliance that Washington leads.

“The president’s announcement comes as a surprise,” Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in a statement.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was unusually blunt in condemning Trump’s threat, saying on X that his country would raise the issue directly with Washington.

“Applying tariffs on allies for pursuing ‍the collective security of NATO allies is completely wrong,” Starmer said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa said in separate but identical posts on X that the European Union stood in “full solidarity” with Denmark and Greenland.

“Tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. Europe will remain united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty,” they said.

Officials from Norway, Sweden, France and Germany reiterated support for Denmark on Saturday and said tariffs should not be part of Greenland ​discussions.

Cyprus, which currently holds the EU presidency, said it has called for an emergency meeting of ambassadors from the union’s 27 countries on Sunday.

TRADE DEALS UNDER THREAT?

Saturday’s threat could derail tentative deals Trump struck last year ‌with the European Union and Great Britain. The deals included baseline levies of 15% on imports from Europe and 10% on most British goods.

“The biggest danger, it seems to me, is his decision to treat some EU countries different from others,” said William Reinsch, a trade expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “I’m not surprised … It may well convince the European Parliament that it is pointless to approve the trade agreement with the U.S., since Trump is already bypassing it.”

Trump floated the general idea of tariffs over Greenland on Friday, without citing a legal basis for doing so. Tariffs have become his weapon of choice in seeking to compel American adversaries and allies alike to meet his demands.

He said this week he would put 25% tariffs on any country trading with Iran as that country suppressed anti-government protests, though there has been no official documentation from the White House of the policy on ⁠its website, nor information about the legal authority Trump would use.

The U.S. Supreme Court has heard arguments on the legality of ​Trump’s sweeping tariffs, and any decision by the top U.S. judicial body would have major implications on the global economy and U.S. presidential ​powers.

The encroaching presence of China and Russia makes Greenland vital to U.S. security interests, Trump has said. Danish and other European officials have pointed out that Greenland is already covered by NATO’s collective security pact.

A U.S. military base, Pituffik Space Base, is already in Greenland, with around 200 personnel, and a 1951 agreement allows the United States to deploy as many forces as ‍it wants in the Danish territory.

That has led many European ⁠officials to conclude that Trump is motivated more by a desire to expand U.S. territory than by security concerns.

“China and Russia must be having a field day. They are the ones who benefit from divisions among allies,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X in response to Trump’s threat.

Some U.S. senators also pushed back. “Continuing down this path is bad for America, bad for American businesses and bad ⁠for America’s allies,” Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Thom Tillis, bipartisan co-chairs of the Senate NATO Observer Group, said in a statement.

Europeans should not react hastily to Trump’s tariff threat, said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING Research.

“Just ignore it and wait and see,” Brzeski ‌told Reuters. “Europe has shown that it will not accept everything, and so the tariffs are actually already a step forward compared to the threatened military invasion.”

Thousands march in Greenland to support Arctic island in the face of Trump’s threats to take it over

By EMMA BURROWS, DANIEL NIEMANN and STEFANIE DAZIO, Associated Press

NUUK, Greenland (AP) — Thousands of Greenlanders carefully marched across snow and ice to take a stand against U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday. They held signs of protest, waved their national flag and chanted “Greenland is not for sale” in support of their own self-governance in the face of increasing threats of an American takeover.

Just as they finished their trek from the small downtown of Greenland’s capital city Nuuk to the U.S. Consulate, the news broke: Trump, from his home in Florida, announced he will charge a 10% import tax starting in February on goods from eight European countries over their opposition to U.S. control of Greenland.

“I thought this day couldn’t get any worse but it just did,” Malik Dollerup-Scheibel said after The Associated Press told him about Trump’s announcement. “It just shows he has no remorse for any kind of human being now.”

Trump has long said he thinks the U.S. should own the strategically located and mineral-rich island, which is a self-governing territory of Greenland. Trump intensified his calls a day after the military operation to oust former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.

Dollerup-Scheibel, a 21-year-old Greenlander, and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen were among what others described as the island’s biggest protest, drawing nearly a quarter of Nuuk’s population. Others held rallies and solidarity marches across the Danish realm, including in Copenhagen, as well as in the capital of the Inuit-governed territory of Nunavut in Canada’s far north.

“This is important for the whole world,” Danish protester Elise Riechie said as she held Danish and Greenlandic flags in Copenhagen. “There are many small countries. None of them are for sale.”

In Nuuk, Greenlanders of all ages listened to traditional songs as they walked to the consulate. Marie Pedersen, a 47-year-old Greenlander, said it was important to bring her children to the rally “to show them that they’re allowed to speak up.”

“We want to keep our own country and our own culture, and our family safe,” she said.

Her 9-year-old daughter, Alaska, crafted her own “Greenland is not for sale” sign. The girl said her teachers have addressed the controversy and taught them about NATO at school.

“They tell us how to stand up if you’re being bullied by another country or something,” she said.

Meanwhile, Tom Olsen, a police officer in Nuuk, said Saturday’s protest was the biggest he’s ever seen there.

“I hope it can show him that we stand together in Europe,” he said. “We are not going down without a fight.”

Tillie Martinussen, a former member of Greenland’s parliament, said she hopes the Trump administration will “abandon this crazy idea.”

“They started out as sort of touting themselves as our friends and allies, that they wanted to make Greenland better for us than the Danes would,” she said as others chanted in the background. “And now they’re just plain out threatening us.”

She added that the push to preserve NATO and Greenland’s autonomy were more important than facing tariffs, though she added that she was not dismissing the potential economic impact.

“This is a fight for freedom,” she said. “It’s for NATO, it’s for everything the Western Hemisphere has been fighting for since World War II.”

But when the AP asked Louise Lennert Olsen what she would say to Trump, the 40-year-old Greenlandic nurse instead said she wanted to give a message to the American people.

“I would really like them to support our wish to be Greenland as we are now,” she said as she marched through Nuuk. “I hope they will stand against their own president. Because I can’t believe they just stand and watch and do nothing.”