Jan. 16 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he may add tariffs to countries that oppose his plan to take over Greenland, which is under the control of Denmark, a NATO member.
He made the remarks during a White House roundtable on rural healthcare. He was talking about threatening European countries with tariffs if they didn’t pay more for prescription drugs.
“I went through country after country,” Trump said. “I just went one after another.”
“I may do that for Greenland on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland because we need Greenland for national security,” he said.
On Thursday, Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Greenland Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Motzfeldt met with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, but the meeting didn’t end in a diplomatic solution to the ongoing tension.
On Friday, a congressional delegation was set to visit Denmark to offer support to NATO allies against Trump’s plan to annex Greenland.
“Today, I’m leading a bipartisan delegation to Denmark to meet with Danish and Greenlandic leaders. Congress is unified in wanting to thank our NATO allies and stand firm against unnecessary threats to trusted partners,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Vt. posted on X Friday morning.
The overall U.S. tariff average since Trump took office is about 17%, CNBC reported.
The president has used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act for many of the tariffs, though the use of that law has been heavily challenged in the courts, and several courts have found it unlawful.
The U.S. Supreme Court will soon rule on the use of the IEEPA for tariffs.
“I hope we win the Supreme Court case, because if we don’t, [it’d] be a shame for our country,” he said Friday.
