President Trump had an intense early morning on Truth Social on Tuesday. In the run-up to the World Economic Forum, he gave free rein to his arrogance, reaffirming his desire to take over Greenland and lambasting his European allies.

To hammer home the message, one post featured an AI-generated image of him alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J. D. Vance planting a U.S. flag on Greenland. He has repeatedly stated his intention to take possession of Greenland “for the purpose of national security,” declaring that “there can be no turning back,” while the AI-generated post claimed that Greenland would be U.S. territory by 2026.

In another post, he attacked the United Kingdom, mockingly calling it a “brilliant” ally for its plan to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius, and using that example to argue that, given the “defection” of the United States’ NATO partners, he has no choice but to take over Greenland.

In yet another post, he leaked private text messages from French president Emmanuel Macron and NATO president Mark Rutte discussing their latest political decisions. He ridiculed the French president, who said Europe should respond with a “trade bazooka” to U.S. provocations and tariff threats. Yet the leaked message showed Macron “reaching out” and inviting the U.S. president to a cordial meeting in France — twice — before his return to the United States.

Trump had just threatened France with 200 percent tariffs on its wine and champagne because Macron refused to join the Gaza “Peace Board,” adding that “nobody likes [Macron] because he will be leaving office very soon.”

All this happened before mid-morning in Europe as the Davos summit was beginning, showing how U.S. imperialist arrogance is creating a profound global disruption and a historic crisis in relations between the United States and Europe. Trump is in charge of a declining hegemonic power that is becoming ever more hostile.

Leading up to these provocations, Trump threatened eight European allies on Saturday with 10 percent tariffs if no agreement was reached on Greenland. He also published a message addressed to Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre, stating that because he was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, he no longer feels “obligated to think only about peace” and will now think “about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”

The Dispute over Greenland and the Crisis with Europe

Last week, Reuters reported that the White House was considering paying between $10,000 and $100,000 per Greenlandic resident to buy the island. U.S. pressure was also directed at European leaders, particularly with the threat of cutting U.S. military support to Ukraine.

Trump covets Greenland because this Arctic territory is of strategic importance to U.S. imperialism. The president himself has said as much, declaring on January 14, that “the United States needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security. It is vital for the Golden Dome [missile defense project] that we are building.”

As a Danish colony, Greenland occupies a strategic position that would allow the United States to strengthen its control over Arctic sea routes. Beyond these geopolitical and military issues, Greenland is rich in important mineral resources, most of which are unexploited, but which Trump would like to control.

For their part, Europeans are unwilling to abandon a colony that has been in Danish hands for 300 years. Since last week, EU leaders have been on high alert and have announced a military exercise mobilizing Danish, French, German, British, Dutch, Norwegian, and Swedish soldiers.

The other lever that Europeans could activate is economic: the anti-coercion tool created by the International Cooperation Agreement (ICA). This “trade bazooka” allows the EU to significantly increase tariffs against another country, block its investments in the bloc, and exclude that country from public procurement markets — in other words, to sever most economic ties with a potential adversary. This mechanism theoretically functions as a deterrent and was already being discussed in the summer of 2025, before the agreement reached between Trump and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

European unease reflects Trump’s ambition. Like the United States, imperialist countries have an interest in retaining strategic territories like Greenland. Trump’s threat is rekindling various fears, particularly with regard to Ukraine. Trump’s foreign policy could also threaten French colonial interests, especially in Latin America. If Trump argues that Latin America should belong exclusively to the United States and that no other power should have a presence there, this raises the possible question of French positions in French Guiana and the Caribbean.

For this reason, Macron is calling on European leaders to use the ICA’s anti-coercion mechanism, since the French bourgeoisie is one of the European ruling classes with the most to lose in this new wave of inter-imperialist rivalries. If Macron is extremely accommodating to Trump on Venezuela or Iran, French foreign policy could clash with that of the United States in terms of its colonial policy.

Trump’s leak on Tuesday of a complacent message from Macron — citing agreements on Syria and Iran and inviting a bilateral meeting — appears intended to expose the French president’s fears and sow division within Europe.

Against U.S. and European Imperialism, for Greenland’s Self-Determination

Faced with this situation of rivalry between declining imperialisms — whether the U.S. superpower or the European imperialist powers — the organizations that form part of the Permanent Revolution Current refuse to defend the ambitions of one imperialism over another.

We denounce Trump’s plans to confiscate Greenland’s resources, as well as the belligerent escalation of European leaders who wish to preserve the Danish colony and are using the situation to push their militaristic agenda. Workers will be the first to pay the price for commercial or military rivalries, while the escalation of the trade war can only result in greater exploitation, justified by the rhetoric of national defense, whose main objective is to protect the interests of our ruling classes.

As anti-imperialists and internationalists, we declare our unconditional solidarity with the struggle for self-determination of the communities of Greenland, where more than 80 percent of the population rejects annexation by the United States and 56 percent demand independence from Denmark.

Only the construction of an international anti-war and anti-imperialist front can thwart the plans of the imperialists on both sides, who are leading us into an escalation of war, colonialism, and destruction unseen in decades.Originally published in Spanish on January 20 in La Izquierda Diario.

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