Trump renews call for US to take over Greenland as he arrives for Nato summit | Nato
Donald Trump has revived the US offer to buy Greenland and threatened to withdraw all American armed forces from Europe after being repeatedly rebuffed.
The US president, who attended the NATO summit in Ankara on Tuesday, also suggested that his resolve to defend Europe had been softened by leaders’ political decisions on immigration and energy.
Keir Starmer and European allies are determined to avoid another public row with Trump over defense spending after a troubled year for NATO, with the Iran war once again exposing cracks in the alliance.
The UK has already pushed back against criticism from the US that some of its allies are “falling behind” on funding; The US president is expected to chastise countries, including the UK, for failing to make sufficient progress towards meeting a target of spending 3.5 percent of GDP by 2035.
When he arrived in Türkiye, Trump claimed that Starmer’s decision to stay away from war against Iran had contributed to his downfall, whereas the prime minister’s stance was actually popular with the British public.
“I’m very disappointed in NATO. We weren’t treated well because we had done something in Iran. We don’t need anyone’s help, but before I asked, they said they wouldn’t be there,” the US president told reporters.
“In the case of the United Kingdom, the prime minister, I think, is no longer there, so maybe that’s why what he did was such an unpopular thing. He said, ‘No, we’ll help after the war is over.’ And I said, ‘We don’t need that kind of help.'”
Reviving an earlier debate, Trump also suggested that the dispute over ownership of Greenland, which is part of NATO member Denmark, was “damaging” his relationship with the military alliance.
“Denmark isn’t really spending money to help Greenland, but it’s an important part for the US and it’s surrounded by Chinese ships and Russian ships… [It] It should be controlled by the USA, not Denmark. “And when they don’t agree to it, despite all the money we spent to help them with Russia,” he said.
“We don’t need to spend any money; we can send all our troops out of Europe because, as you’ve probably noticed, Europe is a very different place than it was 20 years ago… They better be careful about immigration and energy. If they don’t watch those two things, you won’t have a Europe anymore.”
In response, UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves told reporters: “Greenland’s future depends on the people of Greenland and Denmark, not the US president. I have been very clear on this since it was first proposed.”
Trump also renewed his criticism that NATO allies do not spend enough on defense and are too dependent on the United States; European members are trying to counter this claim head-on by announcing multi-billion pound defense cooperation.
“Why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars and they’re not on our side? We’ve always been on their side,” he said, but NATO’s mutual defense clause was triggered only after the September 11 attacks on New York, when allies joined US troops in Afghanistan.
