Trudy Rubin: European and business leaders force Trump to reverse course on threats to Greenland

Donald Trump’s sudden retreat from his military and economic threats to seize Greenland from NATO ally Denmark shows it is still possible to block the president from further foreign policy folly.

Trump did a complete U-turn at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, shortly after berating European allies and NATO in a lengthy, lie-filled speech, insisting he must “own” Greenland. Just two hours later, after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the president suddenly announced he had a “framework” for a deal that would satisfy all U.S. needs.

Make no mistake. No matter how the White House spins Trump’s sudden about-face, he staged a total climb-down from a mess of his own making. Based on early reports, he got almost nothing he couldn’t have agreed on with Denmark months ago, based on a 1951 treaty that permits the U.S. to open multiple bases in Greenland.

All Trump’s bluster achieved was to totally alienate America’s European allies and deeply wound the NATO military alliance, whose help he needs to block Russian and Chinese aggression in the Arctic and elsewhere.

So what caused Trump’s sudden reversal? No one can penetrate the president’s aging brain, but the likely reasons have to do with economics and his base, the only factors that seem to move him.

The financial markets tanked early this week from fear that Trump would invade Greenland. No doubt tech moguls at Davos were warning him. New polls also showed 90% of Americans opposed an invasion.

Yet, as late as Wednesday afternoon, he was insisting, in his Davos speech, on the need for “title and ownership” of Greenland, and was threatening to impose new tariffs on Denmark and other European allies if they didn’t surrender. “You need the ownership to defend [Greenland],” Trump contended. “Who the hell wants to defend a license agreement or a lease?”

Parse those words, and you see they intimate an end to NATO and its Article 5 defense mechanism. After all, if the U.S. doesn’t own Poland or the Baltics or Finland, why should Trump defend them if Russia ever attacks?

Still, even in his aggressive speech, Trump was hinting he was seeking an off-ramp, stating he wouldn’t use force.

No doubt he recognized that, despite his open disdain for Europe, its key leaders had abandoned their conciliatory stance and were determined to strike back economically. Last week, the European Union discussed imposing $108 billion worth of retaliatory tariffs on the U.S., as well as restricting American companies from the bloc’s market. The EU-U.S. trade deal agreed to last July was also put on hold.

European leaders had been reluctant to wage such a trade war, but recognized they had no choice, as Trump threatened the future of the NATO alliance. Instead of focusing on the immediate security threat to the West — namely, Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine — Trump was helping the Kremlin by splitting with his European allies.

Instead of working with Canada and other allies whose territory abuts the Arctic, the White House leader was telling them to get stuffed. No wonder the language heard from those formerly close allies at Davos was unlike anything heard since NATO was founded.

“Until now, we tried to appease the new president in the White House, hoping to get his support for the Ukraine war,” admitted Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever. “We were dependent on the United States. But now so many red lines are being crossed … Being a happy vassal is one thing, being a miserable slave is something else.”

Even more blunt was Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney (whom Trump later threatened for his critique).

“The United States under President Donald Trump is no longer a reliable or predictable ally,” Carney said frankly. “We are in the middle of a rupture in the world order … where the large, main power … is submitted to no limits, no constraints.”

Intermediate powers like Canada, however, “are not powerless,” Carney added. Acting together, Canada and European leaders helped force Trump to face that reality this week.

But the fight over Greenland, and the future of NATO, is far from over, and Trump’s retreat may only be temporary. Denmark and Greenland may or may not agree that the U.S. can have sovereign rights to the territory housing new military bases (a provision under discussion).

Denmark will not sell or surrender Greenland, however. In fact, there will be no deal at all unless Copenhagen and Greenland approve the terms.

Moreover, as was clear at Davos from Trump’s speech and actions, he still believes he is the most brilliant leader the world has ever witnessed, which leaves him wide open to Russian and Chinese manipulation.

Nothing so clearly illustrated the president’s megalomania as his inauguration of a so-called Board of Peace. Originally envisioned as a group of world leaders overseeing Gaza’s reconstruction, the board’s newly released charter doesn’t even mention Gaza, but presents its mission as an alternative United Nations, tasked with making peace around the world.

In reality, it is a mammoth Trump vanity project: He heads the board, and its every action is subject to a presidential veto, according to its charter.

The 20-plus initial participants were mostly Mideast sheikhs, emirs, and kings who can pay the $1 billion fee for permanent membership, along with several other autocrats and military-backed rulers. (The only Europeans signed up so far are pro-Russia Hungary and Bulgaria.)

War criminal Putin, busy bombing Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure to smithereens, may accept his invitation to the peace board if the United States releases $1 billion in frozen Russian assets to pay the fee. This, according to the Kremlin.

Meantime, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, gave a slide presentation in Davos describing how Gaza could become a futuristic city with apartment towers and resorts in two to three years, an approximate reprise of the Trumpian pitch for a Gaza Riviera. This, while the Gaza ceasefire is falling apart, and Israel has banned scores of humanitarian agencies from delivering food or medical treatment to desperate civilians.

Trump’s link to reality is so tenuous that the president could still resume his war on NATO. Instead of benefiting from his successful push for Europeans to spend more on defense, he may prefer to fight Europeans while conciliating with Russia.

European allies have finally demonstrated that a unified stand can check some of Trump’s foreign policy delusions. Gutless GOP senators and business leaders who moan privately about Trump’s madness but shut up in public should take note.

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