President Donald Trump on January 16th threatened to impose taxes on countries opposing his request to buy Greenland.
In a roundtable meeting on rural health care at the White House, Mr. Trump told the attendees that: "I can impose taxes on countries that do not cooperate on Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security.
When asked if President Donald Trump will impose import tariffs as mentioned, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said: "Presidents for decades have always used sanctions to resolve geopolitical issues.
Tariffs are only part of a long tradition of presidents using US geopolitical power to achieve US geopolitical goals".
On January 14, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen was present at the White House to discuss with President Donald Trump's administration about the fate of Greenland, he said that the meeting was "frank but also constructive" and the two sides still had "fundamental disagreements".
In response to the criticisms of Greenland's security that Mr. Trump made, also on January 14, Denmark and Greenland declared that there would be an "expanded military presence in Greenland and the surrounding region" with the cooperation of NATO allies.
In a meeting at the White House, according to an anonymous Danish diplomat, the US did not propose buying Greenland or increasing the US military presence there. The discussion mainly focused on the US president's concerns about security. US representatives at the meeting did not mention potential trade projects to exploit Greenland's rare earth metals, which Mr. Trump previously considered a reason the US needed to buy Greenland.
The idea that the US possesses Greenland is not popular with the American people, and the escalating threats to Greenland have also faced criticism from some members of Congress, including Republicans.
While President Donald Trump threatened to impose taxes on countries opposing US intentions on Greenland, a group of bipartisan legislators led by Senator Chris Coons (Democrat Party - Delaware) is on an official visit to Copenhagen. This trip aims to "emphasize bipartisan support for our allies in the Kingdom of Denmark".
