President Donald Trump is set Wednesday to speak at the World Economic Forum, directly addressing an audience that has been put on edge by his intensifying aggression toward the allied territory of Greenland.
Trump’s speech is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. ET. The address will be bookended by meetings with other world leaders attending the five-day summit in Davos, Switzerland, the White House said.
Trump, facing a tough midterm election cycle centered on Americans’ cost-of-living concerns, previously said he will speak at Davos about proposals to make housing more affordable.
But it’s his increasingly belligerent stance toward Europe, as he and his administration persist in trying to acquire Greenland from Denmark, that has already taken center stage.
Trump and his aides have refused to rule out wielding the U.S. military over Greenland. And the president recently said he will slap increasing tariffs on a slew of key European allies until an agreement to sell the Arctic island is inked.
U.S. markets plummeted in the first trading session following Trump’s latest tariff threat.
U.S. officials, speaking at Davos on Tuesday ahead of Trump’s arrival, sought to calm fears about the president’s actions.
“Everyone take a deep breath,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC’s Joe Kernen. “Do not escalate … President Trump has a strategy here. Hear him out, and then everything will be fine.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC’s “Money Movers” that America’s “tariff deals, our trade deals with Europe, with the U.K. — these are durable and stable.”
“You can have a fight with your allies. You can disagree with your allies. It doesn’t stop them from being your allies or your big trading partners,” Lutnick added.
Trump said at the White House before departing for Davos, “We have a lot of meetings scheduled on Greenland, and I think things are going to work out pretty well.”
His expansionist push has nevertheless stoked alarm and outrage from Europe’s leaders and citizens alike.
“People are worried, people are afraid, people are bewildered,” Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for business and mineral resources, told CNBC on Tuesday when asked how residents there are reacting to Trump’s actions.
That assessment aligns with recent opinion polls, which show Greenlanders overwhelmingly oppose being absorbed into the U.S., and protests that have sprung up in solidarity with the territory.
A delegation from Greenland and Denmark, meanwhile, said after meeting with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio that they have a “fundamental disagreement” with the Trump administration.
But Trump, who has long sought to make Greenland a part of the U.S., has so far refused to take no for an answer.
Trump argues Greenland is a must-have asset for U.S. national security due to the alleged threats being posed in the Arctic by Russia and China.
Amid the geopolitical upheaval, some European allies have increased their military presences in Greenland, drawing Trump’s ire.
Greenland is an autonomous territory within the kingdom of Denmark, which is a member of NATO, Europe’s longstanding military alliance with the U.S. and Canada. The cornerstone of the alliance is an agreement that an attack on any single member is considered an attack on them all.
Despite that — and despite the fact that the U.S. already has a military base in Greenland — Trump maintains that only a full acquisition can guarantee security in the region.
“China and Russia want Greenland, and there is not a thing that Denmark can do about it,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.
In the same post, Trump said he would slap tariffs on imports from eight NATO members, including France and the United Kingdom, in retaliation for moving troops to Greenland. The new tariffs will start at 10% next month and increase to 25% in June, Trump wrote.
Those European countries are now considering imposing major economic counter-measures on the U.S. in response.
“Tariff threats are unacceptable … Europeans will respond in a united and coordinated manner should they be confirmed,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday. “We will ensure that European sovereignty is upheld.”
Trump’s view of Macron has since appeared to sour.
When asked to respond to reporting that Macron would not join the so-called Board of Peace centered on resolving conflicts in Gaza, Trump threatened to impose a 200% tariff on French wine.
“Nobody wants him because he’s going to be out of office very soon,” Trump added.
Trump also revealed that he has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to join that board.
Early Tuesday morning, Trump shared on social media an apparent screenshot of a text message from Macron, who wrote that he doesn’t understand the U.S. leader’s strategy on Greenland.
