News Analysis: A playbook emerges to counter Trump as ‘middle powers’ unite
NUUK, Greenland — The idea that Denmark alone or Europe together could defend Greenland against American forces had become a subject of relentless ridicule in the White House. Danes Rejected as “irrelevant” Europe, on the other hand, was portrayed as a shadow of its former self. The administration has said that if President Trump chooses to take control of this Arctic island, it will be his.
Yet Europe defended Greenland last week. The European Union’s plans for a strong economic response have spooked US markets. Trump has backed off a years-long effort to seize the region, and tiny Denmark has succeeded, ensuring relief from an American pressure campaign that challenges its fundamental sovereignty.
“We can get by with a little help from our friends,” Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen wrote in her guest book at Checkers on Thursday, referring to the Beatles lyric while visiting her British counterpart.
The specter of conflict has not disappeared. In Nuuk on Friday, after a visit with local leaders at a government office on the main boulevard of Greenland’s capital, Frederiksen embraced locals who fear the imperialist United States. He declined to answer questions about whether tensions with Washington had been resolved.
The Greenland crisis was a turning point for US allies; The leaders of these allies met in Davos, Switzerland, last week, abandoning the pretense that all is well in Washington as they confront a new order. “Middle powers must get their act together,” Canadian prime minister Mark Carney said in a speech widely shared in foreign capitals, “because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”
There are still disagreements in Europe about how to deal with Trump in interpersonal relations. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni were angered by French President Emmanuel Macron’s diplomatic dualism; While they publicly opposed Trump, they privately courted him with fawning texts.
But all agreed that a firm stance against a US attempt to seize Greenland was necessary to prevent a disastrous escalation, even if it risked endangering the NATO alliance itself.
Markets rebounded after Trump reversed course, returning to previous highs. Experts said it will take longer for the United States to improve its relations with its partners.
“Trump’s withdrawal and the Europeans’ deft handling of it averted an immediate crisis, but not long-term damage,” said Elliott Abrams, a veteran diplomat who served under Presidents Reagan and George W. Bush as well as during Trump’s first term. “It was unthinkable that an unpredictable and hostile United States would threaten to use force against a NATO ally. Now it is conceivable, because it has happened.”
“Allied leaders will think about this over the next three years and figure out what works for Trump, who he listens to, and how much of the problem is Trump,” Abrams added, “as opposed to deeper currents in American politics that will outlast him.”
In just one week, allied leaders who dared not criticize Trump last year began returning fire. “There is no point in being soft anymore,” the Belgian prime minister told local media.
After Trump incorrectly said on Thursday that his North Atlantic Treaty Organization partners were “slightly behind the front lines” despite losing more than 1,000 troops in the war in Afghanistan, British prime minister Keir Starmer described his remarks as “insulting and frankly appalling”.
St. Peter Kastor, chair of the history department at Washington University in St. Louis and an expert on the history of land acquisitions in the U.S., said Trump’s efforts to block the U.S. acquisition of Greenland were dramatic in the U.S. but “traumatic in Europe.”
“The problem in this case is that the consequences of this roller coaster ride are profound,” Kastor said. “Even if Trump establishes a U.S. military presence at a fraction of what the United States is currently authorized to do through previous treaty agreements, the damage to U.S.-European relations is real and potentially long-lasting.”
Carney’s speech in Davos struck a particularly poignant chord with foreign leaders, including Trump, who went off script in his own remarks to condemn the Canadian leader.
“When we negotiate with a hegemon only bilaterally, we negotiate from a place of weakness. We accept what is offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating,” Carney said. “This is not sovereignty, but the exercise of sovereignty by accepting nationality.
“In a world of great power competition, countries caught in the middle have a choice; they will either compete with each other for favors or unite to create an effective third way,” he added.
On Friday, Trump barred Carney from joining the “Peace Board,” an organization Trump founded primarily to help rebuild the Gaza Strip. No European country except Hungary agreed to participate.
Permanent membership on the board required a check for $1 billion. Carney announced in Davos that Canada rejected the offer because it questioned where the money would go.
