Live – Trump doubles down on Greenland annexation as Europe struggles to coordinate a response

European Commissioners will on Thursday convene for a Security College, an official confirmed to Euronews.

This will be the second time this format will be held after being created in March last year by Ursula von der Leyen in March in order for Commissioners to be “regularly briefed on security developments, from external and internal security to energy, defence, research, cybernetics, trade, and foreign interference”.

The US President also doubled down overnight on his tariff diplomacy, threatening to slap an additional 200% tariff on French wine and Champagne following Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to accept his invitation to join the Gaza Board of Peace.

Asked by reporters in Miami about Macron’s refusal, Trump said: “Well, nobody wants him because he’s going to be out of office very soon.”

“So you know, that’s all right. What I’ll do is, if they feel like [being] hostile, I’ll put a 200% tariff on his wines and champagnes, and he’ll join. But he doesn’t have to join.”

A source in the French president’s entourage said they “have taken note” of Trump’s latest threat.

“As we have always emphasised, tariff threats to influence our foreign policy are unacceptable and ineffective,” they added.

More from Donald Trump’s overnight social media. He posted a text message from French President Emmanuel Macron that says:

“My friend,

We are totally in line on Syria. We can do great things on Iran. I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland. Let us try to build great things:

1) I can set up a G7 meeting after Davos in Paris on Thursday afternoon. I can invite the Ukrainians, the Danish, the Syrians, the Russians in the margins.

2) Let us have a dinner together in Paris together on Thursday before you go back to the US.

Emmanuel.”

The text message, which has been confirmed by a source in the French president’s entourage, is remarkable because Macron appears to propose a meeting and a dinner with Trump on Thursday, the same day that EU leaders are scheduled to meet for an extraordinary summit.

Additionally, Macron is willing to invite a Russian delegation to the margins of a G7 meeting, which would represent a big break from Europe’s strategy to diplomatically isolate the Kremlin. Earlier this month, Macron suggested reopening direct communication with Vladimir Putin, an idea backed by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

For the past four years, European leaders have been working overtime to defend Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity against Russia’s war of aggression, often putting together strongly worded statements of condemnation, holding phone calls at late hours and getting together for hastily convened crisis meetings.

But now, the script has been flipped dramatically and European leaders find themselves doing the exact same thing – joint statements, phone calls and crisis meetings – to defend Denmark’s sovereignty and territorial integrity against a country that, on paper, is supposed to be their time-honoured ally and main security guarantor: the United States.

The parallelism exemplifies the impossible puzzle that Europe, as a political family bound by a shared commitment to international law, faces in the second Trump era.

Read the analysis.

Donald Trump posted overnight a digitally altered picture of himself with European leaders in the White House that shows him next to a map that depicts Greenland, Canada and Venezuela as part of the territory of the United States, echoing his self-styled “Donroe Doctrine”.

The original picture is from August, when European leaders hastily flew to Washington to meet with Trump after his contentious meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

Trump posted another picture that shows him, alongside Vice President VD Jance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, placing the American flag on Greenland, which is described as “US Territory Est. 2026”.

The social media posts are an ominous sign for European diplomacy.

The US President said earlier this morning that he agreed to a meeting “of the various parties” in Davos on Wednesday during a “good” call with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Greenland.

But he doubled down on his claim that total US control over Greenland, the semi-autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, is “imperative for National and World Security”.

“There can be no going back – On that, everyone agrees!” Trump wrote.

Good morning everyone and welcome to the second day of our special coverage on the row opposing the US and Europe over Donald Trump’s bid to annex Greenland.

Today, you can expect coverage from Davos – where Ursula von der Leyen and Emmanuel Macron are scheduled to give speeches and lots of meetings are expected to happen behind closed doors – as well as Brussels, where EU finance ministers are meeting.

Time to buckle up for another intense news day.