Everyone Agrees.
Davos is back!
“Succinct and smart…News Items boils it down like no other newsletter.” — Tom Freston, Firefly3 LLC and author of “Unplugged - Adventures from MTV to Timbuktu”.
1. President Trump yesterday said there was “no going back” on his goal to control Greenland, refusing to rule out taking the Arctic island by force and lashing out at NATO allies as European leaders struggled to respond. But later, Mr. Trump, who is due to join European leaders at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, told a news conference that he thought, “We will work something out where NATO is going to be very happy and where we’re going to be very happy.” Trump’s ambition - spelled out in social media posts and mock-up AI images - to wrest sovereignty over Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark has threatened to blow apart the alliance that has underpinned Western security for decades. It has also threatened to reignite a trade war with Europe that rattled markets and companies last year, though Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushed back against what he called “hysteria” over Greenland. In a Truth Social post on Tuesday after speaking to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump said, “Greenland is imperative for National and World Security. There can be no going back — On that, everyone agrees!” (Source: reuters.com)
2. Greg Ip:
This tariff threat isn’t like the others.
In the past year, President Trump has used tariffs extensively to pursue trade and investment deals, or address domestic complaints like illegal immigration and drugs.
His threat to hit several European countries with tariffs of 10%, rising to 25%, if they oppose the U.S. annexation of Greenland is entirely different. It would be an unprecedented use of tariffs against an ally for a strategic, as opposed to a domestic, goal.
This is the logical endpoint of Trump’s core doctrine: that the U.S.’s economic size and influence give it leverage to achieve a variety of goals through tariffs, including some that previously required military force. If it succeeds, it could usher in a new sort of trade war, one whose aims aren’t mercantile but geostrategic, including the annexation of more territory. (Source: wsj.com)
3. The European Union's chief executive called for "permanent" independence from the U.S. on Tuesday, framing President Trump's hostility toward allies as a rupture on the scale of the 1971 "Nixon shock." Ursula von der Leyen's remarks reflect the deep unease hanging over the World Economic Forum, where Trump arrives Wednesday amid an escalating crisis in transatlantic relations. Trump's fixation on taking control of Greenland — and his threats to impose tariffs on allies who oppose the move — have jolted European leaders and become the dominant undercurrent of the Davos summit. Overnight, Trump further inflamed tensions by posting alleged private messages from NATO chief Mark Rutte and French President Emmanuel Macron on Truth Social. Von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, warned Trump in her speech that the EU's response to his Greenland threats would be "unflinching, united and proportional." She signaled that the U.S.-EU trade deal reached last summer — and hailed by Trump at the time as "the biggest deal ever made" — would be at risk if Washington follows through. (Source: axios.com)
4. Financial Times:
The rules-based international order is undergoing a “rupture, not a transition”, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Tuesday, as he urged the world’s “middle powers” to unite in response.
Carney did not mention Donald Trump by name but his speech at Davos won a standing ovation from executives attending the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, where the US president will speak on Wednesday, days after threatening European allies with new tariffs if they do not accept his quest to acquire Greenland.
