What to know about Trump's trip to Davos
o President Trump is addressing the World Economic Forum, the exclusive annual gathering of world leaders, policymakers and business figures in Davos, Switzerland, amid unprecedented tension with America's closest allies over Mr. Trump's efforts to make Greenland part of the U.S.

oIn his remarks at Davos, Mr. Trump lambasted America's NATO allies as unreliable partners, insisting the U.S. needs control of Greenland for security reasons, but adding for the first time that he would not use U.S. military force to take control of the island.

o Mr. Trump has pushed European leaders to back his bid to acquire Greenland, threatening eight of America's close allies with 10% tariffs if they decline to support him. His pursuit of the island, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, has drawn a vocal, unified opposition from America's trade and military partners.

o After the president's tariff threat, the three major U.S. stock indexes suffered their worst day since October on Tuesday, with the Dow dropping 1.8%, the S&P 500 losing 2% and the Nasdaq falling 2.4%.

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Trump appears to confuse Greenland and Iceland
As Mr. Trump criticized NATO, suggesting the alliance's other members had fallen out of love with him, he appeared to confuse Greenland with Iceland.

"Until the last few days, when I told them about Iceland, they loved me," he said. "They called me daddy, right, the last time."

He repeated the reference to Iceland, an independent nation that is also a NATO member, but has no stake in Greenland, which is a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark.

Last year, NATO's secretary general did call Mr. Trump, "daddy."

"I went from running it to being a terrible human being," Mr. Trump said of the perception of other NATO leaders.

"What I'm asking for is a piece of ice, cold and poorly located, that can play a vital role in world peace and world protection," he said. "It's a very small ask, compared to what we have given them for many, many decades."

Trump says he wants to own Greenland for legal and psychological reasons
Mr. Trump continued asserting that the United States needed to own Greenland, giving some more explanation for his reasoning.

"You need the ownership to defend it," the president said. "You can't defend it on a lease. Number one, legally it's not defensible in that way, totally. And psychologically, who the hell wants to defend a license agreement or a lease?"

"All we want from Denmark for national and international security and to keep our very energetic and dangerous potential enemies at bay is this land on which we're going to build the greatest golden dome ever built," he said, referring to his plans for a missile defense system.

He then lashed out at Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, saying the U.S. would use ownership of Greenland to defend the neighboring country.

"Canada gets a lot of freebies from us, by the way. They should be grateful, but they're not. I watched your prime minister yesterday. He wasn't so grateful."

Trump says U.S. "treated very unfairly by NATO"
"The United States is treated very unfairly by NATO," Mr. Trump said. "We give so much, and we get so little in return."

The president cited the war in Ukraine as an example of his problem with the seven-decade old transatlantic defense alliance.

"We are thousands of miles away, separated by a giant ocean. It's a war that never should have started," he said.

"What does the United States get out of all this work, all this money, other than death, destruction and massive amounts of cash going to people who don't appreciate what we do … I'm talking about NATO and I'm talking about Europe," Mr. Trump said.

Trump says "I won't use force" but "all the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland"
President Trump ruled out for the first time using force to acquire Greenland. Mr. Trump and other White House officials, until Wednesday, had declined to rule out the president ordering the use of the U.S. military to acquire the vast island.

"We never ask for anything and we never get anything," he said. "We probably won't get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But, I won't do that. OK? Now everyone's saying 'oh, good.' That's probably the biggest statement I made because people thought I would use force. I don't have to use force, I don't want to use force, I won't use force. All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland."

Mr. Trump said he was "seeking immediate negotiations" to acquire Greenland.

Trump says "no nation or group of nations" can protect Greenland, apart from the U.S.
Mr. Trump joked about Greenland, asking the crowd if they wanted him to say a few words on the topic, drawing his first chuckles from the audience.

He said he has "tremendous respect" for the people of Greenland and Denmark, but argued every NATO ally should be able to defend its own territory, and said that "no nation or group of nations is in any position to be able to secure Greenland other than the United States."

The president said "our country and the world faces much greater risk than it did before, because of missiles, because of nuclear, because of weapons of warfare that I can't even talk about."

The president dismissed the notion that the U.S. wants Greenland for rare earth materials.

"This enormous, unsecured island is actually part of North America, on the northern frontier of the Western Hemisphere, that's our territory," he said.

Trump says U.K. needs to drill for oil in the North Sea
The president hammered the United Kingdom for not taking greater advantage of the oil reserves in the North Sea.

"The North Sea, one of the greatest reserves anywhere in the world, but they don't use it, and that's one reason why their energy has reached catastrophically low levels with equally high prices," he said. "High prices, very low levels."

Mr. Trump called the North Sea "incredible."

"They don't let anybody drill," he said. Environmentally, they don't let them drill."

He said oil companies had asked him if there was anything he could do about the North Sea.

"Sitting on one of the greatest energy sources in the world and they don't use it," he said of British leaders, before spending some time lambasting wind energy, which the U.K. has aggressively embraced in recent years.

Trump lauds his tariffs and says Venezuela will do "fantastically well"
Trump says his tariffs have enabled U.S. to "radically reduce our ballooning trade deficit"

The president touted his administration's trade agreements with other countries, including European nations, Japan and South Korea, and said they "raise growth and cause stock markets to boom, not only in the U.S., but in virtually every country that came to make a deal. Because as you've learned, when the United States goes up, you follow."

He said Venezuela has "got problems, but we're helping them," claiming that after the U.S. operation to capture former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela will "be making more money than they've made in a long time. Venezuela is going to do fantastically well."

"The attack ended and they said: 'let's make a deal," Mr. Trump said.

Davos crowd listens silently to Trump's speech
The crowd of world leaders, business executives and others in Davos remained silent during the beginning of Mr. Trump's address to the World Economic Forum, without clapping, as he described his transformation of the U.S. federal government and relations with Europe.

Mr. Trump spoke in a measured tone as he described the "miracle taking place," touting a long list of what he framed as his administration's economic successes.

Trump says Europe is "not heading in the right direction"
Mr. Trump said he wanted to discuss in Davos, "how we want to raise living standards for our citizens," and how European countries could emulate the U.S., because "certain places in Europe are not even recognizable."

"I don't want to insult anybody, and I say I don't recognize it, and that's not in a positive way. That's in a very negative way. And I love Europe and I want to see Europe do good, but it's not heading in the right direction."

Mr. Trump said many Western governments had turned their back on, "everything that makes nations rich and powerful and strong."

"Quite frankly, many parts of our world are being destroyed before our very eyes, and the leaders don't even understand what's happening, and the ones that do understand aren't doing anything about it."

Trump not expected to name a new Fed chair while he's in Davos
The president isn't expected to name a new chair of the Federal Reserve while he's in Davos, a senior Trump administration official said.

Mr. Trump has apparently not yet decided on a candidate to replace Chairman Jerome Powell. On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC's "Squawk Box," that his "guess is the president will reach a decision maybe as soon as next week."

"We've had substantial conversations about this," Bessent said. "We've run a process that started in September — 11 very strong candidates. We're now down to four candidates. The president has personally met with all of them, and it's going to be his decision."

Mr. Trump has mentioned a couple of the leading candidates, whom he has referred to as "the two Kevins." One is director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, and the other is former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh.

Trump kicks off speech in Davos, addressing "so many friends, a few enemies"
Mr. Trump took the stage at Davos, addressing, "so many friends, a few enemies," he said.

"It's a who's who, I will say that," he said.

Mr. Trump began his speech by touting the completion of his first year in office, and a "booming" economy. He noted stock market highs, economic growth and strong 401(k) growth.

"People are doing very well, they're very happy with me," he said, despite struggling approval numbers.

Trump's talks with German leader reportedly cancelled due to flight delay
A planned bilateral meeting between Mr. Trump and German chancellor Friedrich Merz today in Davos was cancelled due to the President's delayed arrival, a German source told the Reuters news agency.

President Trump arrives in Davos
Mr. Trump arrived in Davos, on his Marine One helicopter, to attend the World Economic Forum. His flight from the U.S. to Zurich was delayed after technical problems with Air Force One.

He was scheduled to address the forum at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, and it was unclear whether his delayed arrival in Switzerland might force a change in that timetable. U.S. officials said previously scheduled executive time before the speech had been cancelled so that he could head straight for the international gathering.

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Posted by Temmy
Wed, January 21, 2026 4:00pm