Donald Trump has locked onto his next target, Greenland, after a controversial episode with Venezuela. In fact, it would not be wrong to assume that the U.S. President is quite fixated on the Danish territory, which is what made him overlook a blunder. Abruptly, he declared a 10 percent tariff on Denmark and seven other European allies after Denmark refused to sell Greenland.
The other affected countries include Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands and Finland — all of which are essential NATO allies. The new tariff increase will be applied to all goods that come from these countries. Meanwhile, the final deadline for the purchase of Greenland is locked until June 1. Unfortunately, all these nations had recently signed trade deals with the U.S., and now the recent tariff threats have shaken their market confidence.
#Greenland? #Starmer would use “the full strength of government at home and abroad” to defend international law, labelling Trump’s tariff threat against allies “completely wrong”.
But unlike the EU, he isn’t keen to impose tariffs on the US.
Brilliant ! pic.twitter.com/JAvyrGsxrV
— James Woudhuysen (@jameswoudhuysen) January 19, 2026
The announcement has evidently shocked global markets. The Euro and British pound have already plunged sharply against the dollar. It scares many investors about a trans-Atlantic trade, as the market is volatile.
Noted economist Paul Krugman talked about the matter and claimed that it was perhaps one of the stupidest moves ever by Donald Trump. Krugman did not flinch from mentioning how the 79-year-old’s fixation on acquiring Greenland got the better of him to such an extent that he has missed out on noticing the more dangerous maneuver he’s already taken.
In his latest Substack newsletter, Paul explained that Trump threatened tariffs against all these nations because these were the only ones that had sent troops to Greenland against U.S. troops in the first place. U.S. potentially opened fire on its allies.
He added, “European nations are taking it seriously enough that they have sent military forces into Greenland — not exactly to fight off an invasion, but to serve as a tripwire that would mean that U.S. forces trying to seize the island would have to open fire on allies. This would be an awesome act, and also an order that the U.S. military might (and should) disobey.”
Mocking the fact that Trump’s decision was fueled by his frustration of not being able to send the Marines, Paul Krugman added, “European deterrence has worked. This is basically a howl of frustration on the part of a mad dictator who has just realized that he can’t send in the Marines.”
Gold and silver surged to record highs on Monday while global stock markets stumbled, after US President Donald Trump reignited trade war fears with his threat to impose tariffs on severalhttps://t.co/tJnlk9GWP4
— Three Circle (@ThreeCircleOffi) January 19, 2026
The 10 percent tariffs in place on eight European countries have triggered an uncontrollably sharp drop in both the Euro and the British pound currencies. As per a CNBC report, the euro hit a seven-week low of $1.1572 while the pound dropped to a one-month low of $1.3321 before recovering and stabilizing slightly.
The drastic changes have resulted in innumerable investors fleeing to safe-haven currencies like the yen, the Swiss franc and gold. There is expected to be retaliation in terms of EU tariffs, which will have a domino effect on broader economic uncertainty, which will impact global trade. Thus, the EU leaders are set to discuss available options in the wake of the current situation during an emergency meeting called in Brussels on Thursday this week.
Meanwhile, Mette Frederiksen, the Prime Minister of Denmark, has already reacted to the tariff threats. As per a Reuters report, she said, “Europe will not be blackmailed.”
