Trump unleashes chaotic late-night tirade against Europe, vows to take Greenland
Editor’s Note: The Kyiv Independent has made an editorial decision not to edit messages from U.S. President Donald Trump for grammar or clarity.
When European officials woke up on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump hadn't gone to bed yet. He was busy attacking European leaders through his social media platform Truth Social.
“Shockingly, our ‘brilliant’ NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital U.S. Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER,” Trump wrote in the early hours of Jan. 20.
“The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired,” he added.
Trump didn’t end there. He posted AI-generated pictures of European leaders sitting in the Oval Office and looking at a map where Greenland, a Danish territory, and Canada, an independent NATO member state, have been painted over with an American flag.
He appeared to post private messages from French President Emmanuel Macron and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Both suggest that Trump reconsider using coercion and force to acquire the Arctic island.
“I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland,” Macron allegedly wrote.
Hours prior, Trump chastised Macron for declining an invitation to join the president’s new Board of Peace for Gaza.
“Nobody wants him because he’s going to be out of office very soon,” Trump told reporters, only to add that he will “put a 200% tariff on his wines and champagnes and he’ll join.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko were also invited to join Trump’s Board of Peace.
The comments come as Trump threatens to impose up to 25% tariffs on European countries that oppose his ambitions to annex Greenland, the world's largest island and semiautonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO ally.
The U.K. and France were among a group of nations that recently deployed troops to Greenland to conduct joint exercises as part of a security assessment. Trump lambasted the joint exercises, calling them a "very dangerous game" and targeting the participating nations with tariffs.
The eight nations that took part in the exercises will face "a 10% tariff on any and all goods" sent to the U.S. beginning Feb. 1, Trump said. Tariffs will increase to 25% on June 1 and remain in effect until "a deal is reached for the complete and total purchase of Greenland."
"France is committed to the sovereignty and independence of nations, in Europe and elsewhere. ... No intimidation or threat will influence us — neither in Ukraine, nor in Greenland, nor anywhere else in the world when we are confronted with such situations," Macron wrote on Jan. 17.
