Trump proclaims tariffs on European international locations till deal is reached for 'buy of Greenland'; Danish PM says Europe 'won't be blackmailed'

[ad_1] After President Trump posted his plan to levy new tariffs on Europe on Saturday, response was swift and fierce. Trump stated the US would implement 10% tariffs on eight European international locations he says are getting in the way in which of a US buy of Greenland.

The tariffs would start Feb. 1 and apply to "any and all items despatched to" the US. The levies on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and Finland can be raised to 25% on June 1 if no settlement is in place.

"China and Russia need Greenland, and there's not a factor that Denmark can do about it. They at present have two dogsleds as safety, one added just lately," Trump wrote. "Solely the USA of America, underneath PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP, can play on this recreation, and really efficiently, at that!"

The international locations — Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, Britain and Norway — are already topic to US tariffs between 10% and 15%.

"Tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and danger a harmful downward spiral," the eight nations said in a joint assertion Sunday, as EU members deliberate to fulfill to debate attainable countermeasures.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen praised the constant message from the remainder of the continent, saying "Europe won't be blackmailed," a view echoed by Germany's finance minister and Sweden's prime minister.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was asked Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press whether or not Trump’s stance towards Europe is a negotiating tactic. However Bessent appeared to point the president wouldn’t change his thoughts.

"Europeans mission weak point, US initiatives power," he stated. "The president believes enhanced safety is just not attainable with out Greenland being a part of the US."

On Saturday, protesters rallied in Denmark and Greenland , with hundreds in Greenland's capital metropolis of Nuuk chanting "Kalaallit Nunaat" — the island's identify in Greenlandic — as they marched to the U.S. embassy.

These protests got here after former NATO head and former Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen stated Trump was speaking like a "gangster" and utilizing Greenland as a "weapon of mass distraction" from the battle in Ukraine.

In the meantime, the US Supreme Courtroom's first two alternatives to problem a verdict this yr on the implications and legality of Trump's international duties on commerce companions have come and gone and not using a determination.

The courtroom heard arguments in early November. Each conservative- and liberal-leaning justices requested skeptical questions of the tactic by which the president imposed his most sweeping duties. Trump imposed his tariffs by invoking a 1977 legislation meant for nationwide emergencies.