Jan. 20 (UPI) — At a White House press briefing Tuesday afternoon, a reporter asked President Donald Trump how far he’s willing to go to acquire Greenland: “You’ll find out,” he responded.
Trump spoke to a packed White House press room for 2 1/2 hours, mostly boasting about his accomplishments in the past year and discussing immigration, the Nobel Peace Prize, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement arrests and former President Joe Biden. At the end, he took questions.
A reporter said that taking Greenland could mean the breakup of NATO and asked “Is that the price you’re willing to pay?”
“I think something’s going to happen that’s going to be very good for everybody,” Trump said.
“Nobody’s done more for NATO than I have, as I said before, in every way. Getting them to go up to 5% of GDP was something nobody thought was possible. And pay. At 2% they weren’t paying. At 5% they are paying,” he said, referencing his push to get NATO members to spend 5% of their gross domestic product on defense.
“They are buying a lot of things from us, and I guess giving them to Ukraine,” apparently talking about military assets.
“I think that we will work something out that NATO is going to be very happy, and we’re going to be very happy. We need [Greenland] for security purposes, national security and world security,” he said.
Earlier Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron jabbed at Trump in his address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, though he didn’t mention the president specifically.
Near the end of his economy-heavy address, Macron told the audience, “It’s not a time for new imperialism or new colonialism. This is a time of cooperation in order to fix these three global challenges for our fellow citizens. We do prefer respect to bullies,” Macron concluded. “And we do prefer rule of law to brutality.”
His comments came after Trump’s threat to add 200% tariffs on French wine to punish France for supporting Greenland and Denmark.
Macron described the threat of tariffs as “unacceptable.”
“No intimidation or threat will influence us — neither in Ukraine, nor in Greenland, nor anywhere else in the world when we are confronted with such situations,” he said on X. “Europeans will respond in a united and coordinated manner should they be confirmed. We will ensure that European sovereignty is upheld.”
A reporter asked Trump about his relationship with Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“I think I get along very well with them. They always treat me well,” he said. “They get a little rough when I’m not around. They gotta straighten out their countries on immigration and energy. They gotta stop with the windmills.”
Earlier, Trump posted a screenshot of a text conversation with Macron.
“My friend, we are totally in line on Syria. We can do great things on Iran. I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland.”
He offered to meet with Trump in Davos and to call an emergency G7 meeting.
At his press conference, Trump said he wouldn’t meet with Macron because of logistics. Trump is leaving Tuesday evening for Davos, and he said Macron likely won’t still be there.
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