World News: Trump Uses Davos to Illuminate Greenland Intentions

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Wednesday, 21 January 2026 10:15

Written by Olivier Longhi

Donald Trump's speech at the Davos Forum left little doubt about his intentions towards Greenland. Although the march towards annexation is arduous, the United States' attitude could nevertheless serve to invent a European diplomacy ready to impose itself.

By declaring that he is asking for a "piece of ice in exchange for world peace," Donald Trump is inflicting a double humiliation on Europeans and more broadly on the whole world, considering that only the United States is capable of ensuring peace while reducing Greenland and its population to a mere piece of ice.

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In a few words, the American president demonstrates all the contempt he has for the Old Continent, making the world around him a giant supermarket where everything can be bought and sold. However, the Greenlandic question implicitly refers to the security of the Arctic and the sea lanes that cross it today, and tomorrow due to global warming.

On this point, it is difficult not to agree with the tenant of the White House who, like others, fears Vladimir Putin's territorial appetite, Russia being also concerned by the Arctic issue and quick to seize an opportunity if one were to present itself.

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Expansionist tendencies

In a form of geopolitical schizophrenia, Donald Trump is flattering the Kremlin in order to put an end to the conflict with Ukraine as soon as possible, but at the same time is seeking to place his pawns in order to control any expansionist tendencies of the former KGB agent in the polar region, taking over the mineral resources of an island that is full of them.

At the same time, outraged and rightly outraged by the North American enterprise aimed at annexing Greenland, the Europeans know how difficult it would be for them to thwart potential Russian designs on Greenland, in view of their sincere but ultimately limited action in the Ukrainian conflict. Still dependent on the United States in the context of the peace settlement in Ukraine, the Europeans are trapped in their own weaknesses: opposing Donald Trump in the Greenland question potentially means taking the risk of seeing him leave the negotiating table in Kiev and effectively abandon Ukraine to the fate of the Russians. It is also worth noting the Kremlin's discretion in this Greenlandic affair, which is reluctant to deprive itself of a negotiating partner that is generally conciliatory with Russia.

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Ambiguities and orientation

It is therefore to be feared that in the more or less long term, Greenland will end up falling into the hands of Donald Trump's United States. Congress, for the moment silent, unlike some members of the MAGA sphere anxious to see the American President refocus on domestic affairs, plays on the ambiguities of a Cornelian question: Leaving Greenland to its sovereign destiny at the risk of depriving itself of useful resources with regard to the technological orientation of tomorrow's economy (via artificial intelligence in particular),  not to mention the potential Russian threat, or supporting President Trump by endorsing that the latter is blithely flouting international law and NATO rules.

In the end, it appears that Donald Trump's diplomacy has redrawn the lines of global geopolitics in the face of stunned Europeans, overwhelmed by their own inertia, leading one to think that Donald Trump could prove to be the key to a European diplomatic and defensive freedom that must now be invented and imposed.

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Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently a professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist and recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, was a press and publishing consultant, and was a communications consultant.