President Donald Trump admitted in a private phone call that his tariffs blowup on European countries came after he may have been given “bad information” on troop deployments to Greenland, according to CNN.
He made the striking concession during a weekend call with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, an unnamed senior UK official told the outlet.
The call came after troop deployments to Greenland last week by several European NATO allies set Trump off, leading to a furious announcement that he’d be slapping 10 percent tariffs on any countries that oppose his bid to seize control of the Danish-owned territory.
Denmark had informed the U.S. of the troop deployments in advance, however, according to the UK official. A Danish official also told CNN the moves weren’t spontaneous and had been planned in advance through established U.S. and European military channels.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Denmark and other European countries have deployed modest troop contingents to Greenland as part of joint military drills. Britain and the Netherlands each dispatched a single officer, Finland and Sweden sent two troops apiece, while France and Germany contributed slightly larger contingents of 15 and 13 service members, and Denmark sent more than 100 troops.
Denmark’s military framed the presence of foreign troops as a meaningful boost to Greenland’s security and stressed that the exercise had nothing to do with Trump’s push to acquire the Arctic territory, Danish broadcaster TV2 reported.
“My focus is not toward the U.S., not at all. My focus is on Russia,” Denmark’s top military commander in the Arctic, Major General Søren Andersen, told Reuters last week.
The Danish forces are set to join NATO’s military drills, known as “Arctic Endurance.” Anderson added that the United States has also been invited to participate in the exercise, while Danish Army Chief Peter Boysen dismissed suggestions of a hypothetical hostile confrontation with U.S. troops. “That’s speculative, and I won’t go into that,” he told TV2.
Nonetheless, the announcement rattled Trump, who quicky lashed out on social media, claiming several European countries had “journeyed to Greenland, for purposes unknown.”
He went on to suggest they had escalated tensions amid his push for Greenland, threatening tariffs in response and writing: “These Countries, who are playing this very dangerous game, have put a level of risk in play that is not tenable or sustainable.”
The revelation that this meltdown, by Trump’s own admission, came as a result of “bad information” is likely to further fuel concerns after he acknowledged in a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre that he no longer feels “an obligation to think purely of Peace” after being passed over for last year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
Trump also appeared to walk back suggestions of escalating tensions over the military drills during a C-SPAN interview on Monday.
“That wasn’t a military. They sent a few people. And they say they sent them not for me, but to guard against Russia,” he said.
He has nonetheless ramped up his threats to take over Greenland, posting an image late Monday of himself planting on American flag on the island.
Trump has repeatedly framed Greenland’s acquisition as a matter of national security and deterrence against Russia and China. Denmark and Greenland have consistently rejected the idea, warning that U.S. military action could threaten NATO and emphasizing that Greenland is not for sale.
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