President Donald Trump unleashed a torrent of social posts about Greenland as he prepared to head to the World Economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, exerting even more pressure on European leaders over his desire to acquire the Danish territory.
Trump railed in the posts late Monday against allies in Europe and reiterated what he deemed the necessity for the U.S. to obtain Greenland, shared screenshots of what appeared to be text messages from European leaders on the subject and posted images suggesting the U.S. take over Greenland and Canada, for good measure.
In one of his posts, Trump said he had agreed to a meeting about Greenland in Davos after a call with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and repeated his line that “Greenland is imperative for National and World Security.”
About an hour later, he criticized the deal for the United Kingdom to relinquish control of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, a move his administration supported just months ago. (The U.S. has a joint military base with the UK on one of those islands, Diego Garcia, and will continue to have access to it under the deal.) Trump called the agreement “an act of GREAT STUPIDITY” and said it was “another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired.”
Trump also posted apparent screenshots of texts he received from French President Emmanuel Macron and Rutte on Greenland. In between, he shared an image of him holding an American flag next to a sign labeling Greenland a U.S. territory alongside Vice President JD Vance and Secretary Marco Rubio, and an image of him in the Oval Office next to a map of North America that shows the American flag overlaying the U.S. and Canada.
Trump’s late-night Truth Social posts come amid a renewed push from his administration for the U.S. to seize the Arctic island and a uniformly befuddled and frustrated response from European allies — and U.S. lawmakers. The White House last week declined to rule out military action over Greenland, and Trump has threatened steep tariffs on European countries to try to force a sale of the Danish territory.
Despite his claim about national security, Trump himself seems to have acknowledged that the motivation behind his obsession over Greenland is at least partly personal: According to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre’s office, Trump texted Støre over the weekend and suggested his preoccupation with Greenland is partly because he did not win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.