Trump leaks texts from Macron and Rutte and says Europe won't 'push back too much' on Greenland

LAST UPDATE | 12 hrs ago

DONALD TRUMP HAS said he will hold talks with “various parties” at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week over this plans to take over Greenland. 

The US President wrote in a post on Truth Social that he had a “very good telephone call” with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte about the Arctic island, repeating his claims that it is “imperative for National and World Security”. 

It comes as the European Commission mulls its response to Trump’s threat to place tariffs on eight Nato countries who oppose his bid to take over Greenland. 

The tariff on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland would come into effect on 1 February, before increasing to 25% in June.

Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One in Florida, Trump doubled down on his demand to control the autonomous Danish territory. 

“I don’t think they’re gonna push back too much. We have to have it. They have to have this done. They can’t protect it, Denmark,” he said. 

The Republican leader called the Danish leaders “very good people, but they they don’t even go there”. 

‘I don’t care about Nobel Prize’

Reporters also asked him about the Nobel Peace Prize, after he attempted to justify his threats over Greenland in a letter to the Norwegian prime minister. 

In the letter, which was published yesterday, Trump told Jonas Gahr Støre that he no longer feels “an obligation to think purely of Peace” because he did not receive the award. 

Last week, the recipient of the prize, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, gifted Trump her medal during a visit to the White House, but the Nobel Committee insisted that possession of the medal did not equate to being a laureate.

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Despite openly coveting the prize, Trump told reporters: “I don’t care about the Nobel Prize.”

He said Machado “felt that I deserved it, and really wanted me to have the Nobel Prize, and I appreciate that”.

The Norwegian government does not choose the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. But Trump insisted: “If anybody thinks that Norway doesn’t control the Nobel Prize, they’re just kidding. They have a board, but it’s controlled by Norway, and I don’t care what Norway says.”

France 200% tariff threat

He also threatened to impose 200% tariffs on French wine and champagne after he was told that French President Emmanuel Macron had said he did not want to join his so-called ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza. 

“Did he say that? Well, nobody wants him because he’s going to be out of office very soon,” Trump said of Macron.

“What I’ll do is… I’ll put a 200% tariff on his wines and champagnes, and he’ll join, but he doesn’t have to join.”

He has since shared screenshots of messages from Macron on the Signal app, in which the French President told him he did “not understand what you are doing on Greenland”.

“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,” Macron said in his message.

“I can set up a G7 meeting after Davos in Paris on Thursday afternoon,” Macron wrote, referring to this week’s gathering of global elites in Switzerland.

I can invite the Ukrainians, the Danish, the Syrians and the Russians in the margins. 

Davos

Before boarding Air Force One, Trump concluded: “It’s going to be a very interesting Davos.”

The Swiss summit has been overshadowed by the US President’s tariff threats. He is due to arrive there on Thursday, the same day that European leaders will hold an emergency summit in Brussels to discuss their response to one of the most serious of crises to hit the transatlantic relationship.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin is due at the Swiss ski resort summit tomorrow. 

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Trump cites Nobel Peace Prize snub in angry letter about Greenland to Norway’s PM

France and Germany are understood to support deploying the bloc’s powerful ‘anti-coercion instrument’ if Trump goes ahead with imposing the tariffs. 

Known as the ‘trade bazooka’, it was established in 2023 but has never been activated. It allows the EU to take measures such as import and export restrictions on goods and services in its single market of 450 million people.

Speaking yesterday, Germany’s vice chancellor Lars Klingbeil said: “We will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed.”

“Europe will respond with a united, clear response, and we are now preparing countermeasures together with our European partners.”

Canada backs Europe

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made it known today that Canada “stands firmly” with Greenland and Denmark.

“Canada stands firmly with Greenland and Denmark and fully supports their unique right to determine Greenland’s future,” Carney told the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Carney’s address to the world’s political and financial elites also touched on themes he has addressed since entering Canadian politics last year, namely that a system of US‑led global governance will not return to a pre‑Trump normal.

“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” Carney said.

Canada was one of the first countries “to hear the wake‑up call” that a fundamental change was underway, the prime minister added.

He said Canada had benefitted from an era of “American hegemony” but now had to pivot, with great powers increasingly using their economic power as leverage.

- With reporting by © – AFP 2026 

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