Trump steps up tariff threat over Greenland as Starmer appeals for calm

Donald Trump said he was 100% committed to hitting the UK and European allies with tariffs in protest at opposition to his plan to annex Greenland.

The US President again refused to rule out using the military to seize the Danish territory just hours after Sir Keir Starmer called for calm and played down the prospect of a US invasion of the Arctic island.

The Prime Minister said the dispute over the mineral rich territory, which Mr Trump wants to take over because of its strategic Arctic location, should be resolved through “calm discussion between allies” rather than military action or a trade war.

But in an interview with NBC News, Mr Trump declined to rule out the use of force and insisted he would press ahead with the threatened tariffs on goods from the UK arriving in the US.

Asked if he would use force to seize Greenland, the president said: “No comment.”

The US president said he would charge Britain a 10% tariff “on any and all goods” sent to the US from February 1, increasing to 25% from June 1, until a deal is reached for Washington to purchase Greenland from Denmark.

Mr Trump said the same would apply to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland – all of whom are members of Nato.

Asked if he will follow through the tariff threat, Mr Trump told NBC News: “I will, 100%.”

He said: “Europe ought to focus on the war with Russia and Ukraine because, frankly, you see what that’s gotten them … That’s what Europe should focus on – not Greenland.”

Sir Keir called an emergency press conference in Downing Street on Monday morning to address the tariff threat.

He insisted Mr Trump was not genuinely serious about the prospect of using military force to annex the island, and signalled Britain would not engage in a trade war over the dispute as this was “not the right way to resolve differences within an alliance”.

Asked if he believed Mr Trump was genuinely prepared to invade the island, Sir Keir told reporters: “I don’t, actually.”

He added: “I think that this can be resolved and should be resolved through calm discussion, but with the application of the principles and values that I’ve set out in terms of who decides the future of Greenland, and making clear that the use of tariffs in this way is completely wrong.”

Crisis

Sir Keir described the crisis as a “moment for the whole country to pull together”, and insisted the “right way to approach an issue of this seriousness is through calm discussion between allies”.

The Prime Minister said the future sovereignty of Greenland is solely a matter for it and Denmark, and added: “The use of tariffs against allies is completely wrong.

“It is not the right way to resolve differences within an alliance, nor is it helpful to frame efforts to strengthen Greenland security as a justification for economic pressure.”

In a sign of the seriousness with which the Government appeared to be taking the economic threats from the US, Chancellor Rachel Reeves was among the senior Cabinet ministers sat in the audience at the Prime Minister’s announcement, having pulled out of a Monday morning event at the London Stock Exchange.

Sir Keir also abandoned plans for a Monday cost-of-living related visit at the 11th hour to make the announcement.

The Prime Minister said he will speak to the US president about Greenland again “in the coming days”.

Mr Trump is expected to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week.

Chancellor Ms Reeves and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper are expected to attend the gathering, but there are no current plans for Sir Keir to go, it is understood.

'Completely wrong'

Sir Keir engaged in a diplomatic blitz on Sunday, telling Mr Trump over the phone that his threats of a trade war over Greenland were “completely wrong”.

The US president meanwhile suggested the decision not to award him the Nobel Peace prize – given each year in Norway’s capital Oslo – had influenced his attitude to Greenland.

In a letter to Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Store, Mr Trump also said he no longer feels “an obligation to think purely of peace”.

The Foreign Secretary met her Danish counterpart Lars Lokke Rasmussen in London on Monday afternoon amid the crisis.

Ms Cooper reiterated Sir Keir’s messaging that “tariffs and threats against allies in this way is completely wrong and counterproductive”.

Mr Rasmussen said he and Ms Cooper had been “in almost daily contact for the last week or so”, adding: “I’m not here in order to ask for your support, I’m here to thank you for your support.”

He also urged allies to “combine forces” in support of international principles and against the common “enemy” – Russia.

The meeting, in the Foreign Secretary’s official residents at Carlton Gardens, London, is understood to have been arranged prior to Mr Trump’s tariff threat.

Condemnation

There appeared to be agreed condemnation of the US president’s latest actions across the political spectrum.

Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge told the Press Association it was “absolutely critical” to stand up to Mr Trump’s threats through close engagement with the US administration, adding: “It is totally unacceptable, and I hope the wider American public, congressmen et cetera, recognise that and, of course, the administration.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called for a package of tariffs on America co-ordinated with European allies after branding the US president’s actions “economic thuggery that cannot go unanswered”.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage suggested negotiation was a preferred response to a trade war, but described Mr Trump’s threats of tariffs as “wrong”, and said he would be “having some words with the American administration” about it in Davos.