President Donald Trump threatened “big retaliation” against U.S. allies in Europe just a day after reaching a tentative deal with NATO that would prevent the U.S. from invading Greenland.
On Wednesday, the president backed off his threats that the U.S. would acquire the autonomous region of Denmark by force if necessary and instead announced his administration had reached a framework for a security deal with NATO involving Greenland and the Arctic Circle.
By Thursday, though, he was already issuing dire new warnings against Europe.
During an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Fox News host Maria Bartiromo asked Trump if he was worried about European countries dumping trillions of dollars in U.S. stocks and bonds over the Greenland issue.
“If they do, they do,” he said. “But if that were to happen, there would be a big retaliation on our part. And we have all the cards.”
He didn’t elaborate on what that retaliation might look like. The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
Over the weekend, Trump announced new tariffs on products from eight European allies—Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands, and Finland—that had opposed his bid to “acquire” Greenland.
In response, the Danish pension fund AkademikerPension announced this week it would exit $100 million in U.S. treasuries, while Greenland’s SISA Pension said it was debating whether to continue investing in U.S. stocks.
Those moves sparked fears that Europe could dump trillions of dollars in U.S. bonds and stocks, rattling financial markets that have already been shaken by Trump’s pursuit of Greenland, Bloomberg reported.
Trump agreed to walk back the tariffs under Wednesday’s deal, which if finalized will allow the U.S. to station missiles in the Arctic island, according to Bloomberg. The framework also calls for bolstering NATO’s presence and arranging Greenland’s mineral rights to limit Chinese interests.
The president’s threat to retaliate if Europe divests from the U.S. added pressure on U.S. allies to stick with the emerging deal, Bloomberg reported.
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