“DAVOS, Switzerland -- President Trump is showing up for an annual gathering of the global elite here in the Swiss Alps, swinging a wrecking ball at the international order.
Trump insists he will take possession of Greenland from NATO ally Denmark -- by force if he has to. Ahead of his trip, he posted an image portraying him lecturing European leaders in front of a map in which Greenland, Canada and Venezuela are emblazoned with the Stars and Stripes.
On Thursday, he plans to unveil what he is calling a Board of Peace that aims to supplant the United Nations -- and be led by him, in perpetuity.
The reactions from many U.S. allies and partners, some of them aired in public, many of them still only expressed in private, is stark: Trump's America seems to have lost its mind. The unfolding break is profound, and, to many outside the U.S., Washington's behavior defies any rational explanation.
The tone in Europe has hardened in recent days, after Trump announced punitive tariffs against European nations that sent troops for exercises in Greenland. Even far-right and nationalist parties courted by the Trump administration as an alternative to centrist politicians on the Continent have voiced outrage and called for retaliation.
Carl Bildt, the former prime minister of Sweden who now co-chairs the European Council on Foreign Relations, Tuesday described Trump's social-media post with the map as "a Nero warning" -- a reference to the infamous Roman emperor blamed at the time for burning down the city.
Trump's message to the Norwegian prime minister that "I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace" because he hadn't been given the Nobel Peace Prize shows a serious problem with the U.S. president's judgment, said Bernard Guetta, a French member of the European Parliament.
Ettore Sequi, a former secretary-general of the Italian foreign ministry, said Trump has made clear his desire to blow up the international system and summed up the situation by saying: "The strategic choice for Europe is whether it is able to talk to Trump while keeping a gun on the negotiating table."
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), a Trump ally also attending Davos, said in an interview that "a lot of people think" Trump "is destroying the old order. Good. It didn't work." He said he had little patience for European hand-wringing and was confident that the issue of Greenland would be resolved to everyone's benefit.
"We are not going to transfer title under a force-of-arms threat, but the idea of finding a way to bolster Greenland's capabilities and to have more control by us is coming together," he said. "Enough with the Greenland drama. It's all going to work out."
European leaders have promised a united response to Trump's threat to impose new tariffs on several European countries if he doesn't get Greenland. The European Parliament has put on hold a trade deal with the U.S. that was negotiated last summer. That means that unless the standoff is resolved, tariffs on some 93 billion euros ($109 billion) in U.S. goods will come into effect next month, with more painful moves, such as sanctions on U.S. tech companies, also under consideration.
"Our response will be unflinching, united and proportional," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Davos, warning about a "dangerous downward spiral" in the trans-Atlantic relationship.
President Emmanuel Macron of France and several other European leaders turned down Trump's invitation to join the world Board of Peace, a body that according to the draft charter would be presided over by him for life, and that would in essence replace the current U.N. According to the charter, decisions by member-states would be binding only if Trump approved them, and he would have sole authority on picking a successor.
Nations that have accepted the invitation include Belarus and Middle Eastern monarchies. Trump, who plans to establish the board in Davos on Thursday, reacted to Macron's refusal by saying he would impose a 200% tariff on French wines and Champagnes.
There is, so far, a divergence between nations like France that push for maximum response and argue that Trump only recognizes force, countries such as Italy and the U.K. that think the crisis can be resolved through negotiations, and others like Germany that are somewhere in the middle.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a possible Democratic presidential contender in 2028, in Davos excoriated European officials who try to placate Trump. "This guy is not mad, he's very intentional, but he's unmoored and he's unhinged," Newsom said. "It's time to stand tall and firm, have a backbone. I can't take this complicity, people rolling over. I should have brought a bunch of kneepads for all the world leaders."
Based on conversations in Davos, however, the desire to accommodate Trump appears to be on the wane, especially as European security officials grow convinced that he might actually use force to conquer Greenland, a semiautonomous part of Denmark.
While the deployment of Danish, French and other European troops to Greenland this month was officially billed as exercises to protect the Arctic island from Russia and China, the main intent was to create deterrence by raising the political, and military, costs for any U.S. invasion, a European official said.
Canada, too, is growing increasingly alarmed by Trump's designs. "There is a non-zero probability that Canada's sovereignty could be violated, and if Greenland's sovereignty is violated, then we could be next," a Canadian lawmaker said.
The outcome of any U.S. military action in Greenland would be catastrophic, warned President Gitanas Nausėda of Lithuania. "It would be the end of" the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, he said, "and it would probably be the best news for Russia, unfortunately. Europe has to be strong, Europe has to be united."
It is not just Europe's centrist and liberal leaders that make such warnings these days. Jordan Bardella, the leader of France's far-right National Rally party, told the European Parliament Tuesday: "Facing Trump's blackmail, we either react with all the necessary firmness, or we disappear behind the logic of empire."
In the U.K., key Brexit architect and longtime Trump supporter Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform Party that is currently leading the polls, described Trump's threat of using economic, let alone physical, force against allies as "a very hostile act" and as "the biggest fracture in our relationship, between our two countries" since the Suez Canal crisis in 1956.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.), who was on the same TV show as Farage, responded by calling for calm. "We are going to get beyond this little rift," he said. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is attending Davos, has been proffering similarly reassuring messages ahead of Trump's arrival. "Sit back. Take a deep breath. Do not retaliate," he said.
France's Macron took only part of this advice to heart. "We need to be extremely calm," he said as he left Davos before Trump's arrival, adding: "We must defend our interests when they are not respected, and we must be by the side of our Danish friends when they are being pushed around."” [1]
1. Trump's Threats to Allies Stir Worry U.S. Has Lost Its Way --- Insults, tariffs have Davos attendees sensing a break in the international order. Trofimov, Yaroslav. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 21 Jan 2026: A1.
Komentarų nėra:
Rašyti komentarą