Trump's Greenland Demands Trigger Diplomatic Earthquake Across Europe
On Wednesday morning, as President Donald Trump prepared to address the World Economic Forum in Switzerland with his controversial demand for Denmark to surrender Greenland to the United States, members of the Danish and American foreign policy establishment gathered at a Copenhagen think tank. The meeting, originally scheduled to discuss the transatlantic alliance before Trump's actions threatened to rupture it, brought together government advisors and experts from various think tanks across Europe and North America.
Attempts at De-escalation Meet With Skepticism
According to Philip Bednarczyk, an American analyst with the German Marshall Fund's office in Poland who attended the gathering, U.S. representatives attempted to lower tensions by suggesting that cooperation between America and Europe remained possible despite the crisis. They proposed there might still be a path forward, even as Trump threatened tariffs against European countries and hinted at more aggressive measures to acquire Greenland.
The Danish response was telling: Some participants floated the idea of creating a version of NATO without American participation, reflecting growing European skepticism about U.S. reliability as an ally.
Two Weeks of Chaos That Changed European Thinking
Although Trump eventually backed down by day's end, his two-week campaign over Greenland rattled European diplomatic officials more profoundly than any recent development, according to multiple sources who spoke anonymously to HuffPost. These officials described how Trump sowed chaos within their governments, leading to what appears to be a permanent shift toward skepticism of American partnership.
"Even if we manage to get through this," one European official stated, "I don't think it changes the general approach that the U.S. is not a reliable partner anymore."
Earlier in the week, Trump had presented U.S. control of Greenland as inevitable, prompting internal discussions among European governments about abandoning their previous approach of dismissing the American president's rhetoric as mere bluster.
"We tended to downplay what Trump or Vice President JD Vance said, to think that it's posture and they don't really mean it," another official explained. "But it became increasingly clear that they will do what they say, even what seemed too extreme or too eccentric."
From Office Chatter to Diplomatic Realignment
Trump's escalating threats against Denmark dominated European office discussions and group chats throughout the crisis. One official described witnessing "a mixture of frustration from insecurity, unpredictability and a feeling of betrayal with anger and resentment." By mid-week, as senior U.S. officials mocked Europe's ability to respond, some European diplomats had grown so weary of discussing the U.S. relationship that they resorted to exchanging pointed looks when hearing the latest developments from Washington.
"It's all crazy. Batshit crazy," they summarized bluntly.
European Disappointment and Strategic Reassessment
The alarm blended with disappointment in European leaders' responses. On Thursday, an E.U. official compared most European countries' approach to Trump to the fable of the frog and the scorpion, where both perish after the frog foolishly trusts that the scorpion won't sting it. The official noted that at least the scorpion was transparent about its toxic nature.
Nathalie Tocci, director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome, observed that European institutions "don't seem able to adapt to a world in which the U.S., that played such a crucial role in European integration, not to mention NATO, may actually turn into a threat." She suggested this perception has shifted since the Greenland fracture, at least among diplomatic circles: "Individually and privately, they all get it."
The Turning Point: European Pushback
Trump backed down only after significant European countermeasures, including the European Parliament's suspension of the U.S.-E.U. trade deal and suggestions from leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron that the E.U. might deploy its powerful "Anti-Coercion Instrument." This tool could severely impact American businesses by disrupting their access to 450 million European consumers.
Bednarczyk noted that this crisis led proponents of close U.S. ties in Germany, France, Italy and Poland to experience "a painful recognition that we're losing what we had." He anticipates that pro-American voices in European policymaking will increasingly lose ground to rising anti-American sentiment, particularly within nationalist far-right political parties gaining influence across the continent.
Broader Implications for Global Order
Amid this deepening transatlantic rupture, some Europeans are questioning whether the foundational principles their alliance with America claimed to champion—human rights and fundamental global norms—remain relevant. One official starkly declared, "The fact that the U.S. has backtracked so much means there's no more rules-based order," referencing America's role in Israel's actions in Gaza and Trump's reluctance to hold Russia accountable for its war in Ukraine.
An E.U. official elaborated in a message: "The genocide in Gaza was a general rehearsal for abandoning the principles of law, humanity and respect (which were only superficial anyway, but still acted as a deterrent, albeit a weak one). The experiment went well and is now being applied elsewhere, as in Venezuela, Greenland and the streets of Minneapolis. In many European countries, the same forces are trying to follow the example, and although they do not yet have sufficient strength, they are trying."
This Greenland episode represents more than a diplomatic spat—it marks a potential inflection point in transatlantic relations, with European governments fundamentally reassessing their relationship with an increasingly unpredictable United States.
