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Morning opening: Trump takes aim at UK, France, Macron, Greenland in busy overnight Truth Social session
Jakub Krupa
It seems like the US president, Donald Trump, has had a busy evening US time with his phone in his hand.
Overnight, he:
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Attacked the UK, mockingly calling it a “brilliant” ally, for “shocking” plan to hand over sovereignity of the Chagos islands to Mauritius (despite previous US support), saying it’s among a “long line” of reasons why Greenland “has to be acquired”
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Leaked private text messages from France’s Emmanuel Macron and Nato’s Mark Rutte discussing his latest policy moves
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Threatened France with 200% tariffs on French wine and champagne over Macron’s refusal to join the Gaza “board of peace”, said of Macron that “nobody wants him because he’s going to be out of office very soon”
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Reiterated his intention of taking over Greenland as “imperative for national and world security,” saying “there can be no going back”
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Posted an AI generated visual of himself planting the US flag on Greenland, saying it’s “US territory, est. 2026,” days after the US delegation agreed with Danish foreign minister for talks to be conducted behind closed doors, and not through threatening messages on social media.
It’s not even 10am in Europe.
On top of that, his treasury secretary Scott Bessent appeared to taunt the Europeans in Davos, saying they will “form the dreaded European working group first, which seems to be their most forceful weapon” before they can retaliate on trade (£), as he warned them against any moves aimed at the US administration.
As the World Economic Forum gets under way in Davos, we are going to hear from two senior EU politicians as they give us their first reactions to what’s going on.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is due to speak at 10:50am CET (9:50 UK) and France’s Emmanuel Macron is on later at 2pm (1pm UK).
Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas is also expected to address the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Greenland at 1pm CET (midday UK).
It’s going to be a busy day, again.
I will bring you all the latest updates here.
It’s Tuesday, 20 January 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
Key events
Greenland not ‘natural part’ of Denmark, Russia says
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that Greenland was not “a natural part” of Denmark in comments that could further fuel the increasingly contentious debate about the territory’s future.
At a conference in Russia, Lavrov spoke of “crisis tendencies” within the west, with Greenland the latest example of that, as it’s causing unprecedented tensions even within Nato.
He said Russia was monitoring the “serious geopolitical situation” around Greenland.
While he insisted that Russia was not interested in interfering in Greenland affairs and that Washington knows that Russia has no plans to capture Greenland, he said that in his view Greenland was not a natural part of Denmark, Reuters reported.
Speaking more broadly, Lavrov also warned that it was “unlikely” that Russia could strike agreements with the current group of leaders in Europe.
US treasury secretary Bessent urges Europe not to retaliate against Trump’s Greenland tariffs
Here is a bit more on Bessent’s comments that I mentioned in the opening post (9:49), from my colleagues, Graeme Wearden in Davos and Julia Kollewe.
The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has urged European countries not to retaliate against the US’s trade tariffs announced over the Greenland crisis.
Speaking in Davos, during the World Economic Forum, Bessent said countries and companies should pause and “let things play out” after Trump threatened a 25% tariff on a slew of European countries in his pursuit of the autonomous Danish territory.
As global stock markets fell amid political uncertainty, Bessent indicated that retaliatory tariffs would be unwise, citing last year’s tit-for-tat tariff war that broke out between the US and China.
Last April, Trump’s “liberation day” tariff announcement caused turmoil in global stock markets before some countries agree trade deals and markets recovered to reach record highs later in the year, fuelled in part by the AI boom.
Bessent told a press conference at the annual meeting of global leaders: “I would say this is the same kind of hysteria that we heard on 2 April. There was a panic.”
Bessent said: “What I am urging everyone here to do is sit back, take a deep breath, and let things play out. The worst thing countries can do is escalate against the United States.
“What President Trump is threatening on Greenland is very different than the other trade deals. So I would urge all countries to stick with their trade deals. We have agreed on them, and it does provide great certainty.”
Bessent said he did not believe that European countries will retaliate against the US over the Greenland crisis by selling their holdings of America’s debt.
Bessent claimed that predictions that Europe could stop lending to the US, and dump its holdings of US treasuries, was a “false narrative” that defied logic.
Bessent accused the media of having “latched on” to a report from Deutsche Bank on the issue, and of being “hysterical”.
“I think it is a completely false narrative. It defies any logic, and I could not disagree more strongly,” he added.
UK defends Chagos deal from Trump’s criticism
The UK has now responded to Trump’s fierce criticism of the Chagos deal – a significant departure from the previous US backing for the agreement – defending it as critical for UK’s national security.
It said “we acted because the base on Diego Garcia was under threat after court decisions undermined our position and would have prevented it operating as intended in future”.
The government’s statement also pointedly reminded everyone that the deal “has been publicly welcomed by the US”.
Andrew Sparrow has more on this – including other domestic reactions from Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch – over on the UK blog.
And Davos looks like the place to be this week, with Trump now declaring that after his call with Nato’s Rutte he will have “a meeting of the various parties” on Greenland – whatever that means and whoever is going to be involved.
Separately, it’s not clear if Macron’s offer of setting up a G7 meeting on the sidelines was accepted (although looking at timings it would risk clashing with the emergency EU summit on Thursday night), but his separate invitation to a dinner at the Élysée Palace might be gone after Trump’s very pointed and personal criticism of the French president.
Or at least it would make it a very awkward dinner.
Morning opening: Trump takes aim at UK, France, Macron, Greenland in busy overnight Truth Social session
Jakub Krupa
It seems like the US president, Donald Trump, has had a busy evening US time with his phone in his hand.
Overnight, he:
-
Attacked the UK, mockingly calling it a “brilliant” ally, for “shocking” plan to hand over sovereignity of the Chagos islands to Mauritius (despite previous US support), saying it’s among a “long line” of reasons why Greenland “has to be acquired”
-
Leaked private text messages from France’s Emmanuel Macron and Nato’s Mark Rutte discussing his latest policy moves
-
Threatened France with 200% tariffs on French wine and champagne over Macron’s refusal to join the Gaza “board of peace”, said of Macron that “nobody wants him because he’s going to be out of office very soon”
-
Reiterated his intention of taking over Greenland as “imperative for national and world security,” saying “there can be no going back”
-
Posted an AI generated visual of himself planting the US flag on Greenland, saying it’s “US territory, est. 2026,” days after the US delegation agreed with Danish foreign minister for talks to be conducted behind closed doors, and not through threatening messages on social media.
It’s not even 10am in Europe.
On top of that, his treasury secretary Scott Bessent appeared to taunt the Europeans in Davos, saying they will “form the dreaded European working group first, which seems to be their most forceful weapon” before they can retaliate on trade (£), as he warned them against any moves aimed at the US administration.
As the World Economic Forum gets under way in Davos, we are going to hear from two senior EU politicians as they give us their first reactions to what’s going on.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is due to speak at 10:50am CET (9:50 UK) and France’s Emmanuel Macron is on later at 2pm (1pm UK).
Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas is also expected to address the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Greenland at 1pm CET (midday UK).
It’s going to be a busy day, again.
I will bring you all the latest updates here.
It’s Tuesday, 20 January 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
This is Yohannes Lowe here. I am handing the blog over now to my brilliant colleague Jakub Krupa who will bring you the latest lines out of Europe over the course of the day.
Donald Trump’s very public assertion that the UK’s Chagos Island agreement was “an act of great stupidity” will seriously embarrass the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, who has tried to placate the president for favourable trading terms and to keep Washington on side as it is so integral (some would say dangerously so) to the UK’s national security and defence.
Yesterday, Starmer played down the prospect of retaliatory tariffs on the US, after Trump threatened to impose fresh levies against Nato allies if a deal over Greenland is not secured.
During a hastily arranged news conference held on Monday, Starmer said a “trade war is in no one’s interest” and said “alliances endure because they’re built on respect and partnership, not pressure”.
In a rare, direct rebuke to Trump, Starmer also said that applying “tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of Nato allies is wrong”.
The British prime minister said he urged Trump to find a solution “rooted in partnership, facts and mutual respect” in a phone call over the weekend.
Trump, emboldened by the recent capture of the former Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, in an operation which is widely seen as having broken international law, has intensified his rhetoric over Greenland, a largely self-governing part of Nato ally Denmark, which the president says the US will take “one way or the other”.
The eight European countries targeted by Trump’s tariffs (Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK) warned of a “dangerous downward spiral” and said they “stand in full solidarity” with Denmark and Greenland against the threats of annexation.
Trump has vetoed the surrender of the Chagos deal, Nigel Farage says
Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, has previously vowed to overturn the Chagos Islands agreement, claiming the deal was fuelled by a feeling of “postcolonial guilt” in a government “run by human rights lawyers”.
In a post to X this morning, Farage, who has a close relationship with Donald Trump, said: “Thank goodness Trump has vetoed the surrender of the Chagos islands.”
What was contained within the UK-Chagos Islands agreement?
In May 2025, the UK signed an agreement to cede sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, but lease the largest one, Diego Garcia, for 99 years to continue operating a joint US-UK military base there.
The agreement followed lengthy negotiations started under the previous Conservative government after a 2019 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice said the UK should cede control.
As well as establishing a £40m fund for Chagossians expelled from the islands, the UK has agreed to pay Mauritius at least £120m annually during the 99-year agreement, a total cost in cash terms of at least £13bn.
The Conservatives framed the deal as “an act of national self-harm”, which the party claimed left Britain more vulnerable to China because of its links with Mauritius.
The UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, vigorously defended the agreement at the time, saying there was “no alternative” to the deal as it was “part and parcel of using Britain’s reach to keep us safe at home” and hailed it as “one of the most significant contributions that we make to our security relationship with the United States”.
The UK bought the Chagos Islands for £3m in 1968 and forcibly displaced up to 2,000 people – to make way for the UK-US armed forces base – in what is widely seen as a crime against humanity and a shameful example of postwar colonialism.
The 2025 agreement is yet to be ratified by the UK government and has not been implemented into domestic law.
Trump says UK’s decision to hand over sovereignty to Chagos Islands is act of ‘great stupidity’
The US president, Donald Trump, has suggested Britain’s decision to cede the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is among the reasons he wants to take over Greenland.
In a Truth Social post, he said the UK’s plan to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is an “an act of GREAT STUPIDITY”. He said:
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.
There is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness. These are International Powers who only recognize STRENGTH, which is why the United States of America, under my leadership, is now, after only one year, respected like never before.
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.
Denmark and its European Allies have to DO THE RIGHT THING. Thank you for your attention to this matter. PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.
Trump’s comments mark a major reversal from his position when the UK signed the deal last May. At the time, Starmer said: “President Trump has welcomed the deal along with other allies, because they see the strategic importance of this base and that we cannot cede the ground to others who would seek to do us harm.” The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, also praised the deal, saying it reflected “the enduring strength of the US-UK relationship”.
Macron’s text message shared by Trump on Truth Social is authentic, source says
The text message from Emmanuel Macron that Donald Trump shared on his Truth Social platform as a screenshot was authentic, a source close to the French president said on Tuesday morning.
“It demonstrates that the French president defends the same line in public as in private,” the source said, quoted by Reuters.
Macron told Trump that he could set up a meeting after Davos in Paris on Thursday afternoon, the message showed.
Trump’s reply, if any, was not part of the screenshot.
Trump says ‘no going back’ on Greenland
Donald Trump has said he had a “very good” telephone call with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte concerning Greenland.
The US president also said he had agreed to a meeting of various parties in Davos at the World Economic Forum (WEF), while not specifying who the parties were, Reuters reports.
“As I expressed to everyone, very plainly, Greenland is imperative for National and World Security,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday.
There can be no going back – On that, everyone agrees!
Trump had earlier told reporters the US would talk about acquiring Greenland at the WEF because Denmark could not protect the territory.
Opening summary
Welcome to our European live coverage.
In the build-up to Donald Trump’s expected appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday, the US president has reiterated his threats to take Greenland, suggesting Europe wouldn’t “push back too much”.
He also threatened 200% tariffs on French wine and champagne to get Emmanuel Macron to join his Gaza “board of peace”.
Trump is expected to meet global business leaders in Davos on Wednesday, Reuters has reported, as his presence looms large over the annual gathering of the global elite in the Swiss resort.
Business leaders – including CEOs in financial services, crypto and consulting – were invited to a reception after Trump’s special address to the forum, the news agency said, citing sources.
In key developments:
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Trump said of European leaders over his attempt to buy Greenland: “I don’t think they’re gonna push back too much. We have to have it. They have to have this done.”
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Trump, who is expected to arrive in Davos on Wednesday, has posted an image on his Truth Social platform of what he says is a “note from President Emmanuel Macon” in which it appears Macron says: “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland.” Macron also says “let us try to build great things” and that he can set up a G7 meeting in Paris on Thursday, also proposing a dinner with Trump that day.
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China is being represented in Davos by vice-premier He Lifeng, who is due to deliver an address on Tuesday.
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Tuesday’s program at the World Economic Forum also includes addresses from Macron, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Canadian prime minister Mark Carney.
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