Pres. Trump in Davos: "I Won't Use Force" to Take Greenland 1/21/26

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Donald Trump (1:12)

In farms, but they don't use them. They just put them up to show people what they could look like. They don't spin. They don't do anything. They use the thing called coal mostly. But China goes with the coal. They go with oil and gas. They're starting to look at nuclear a little bit. And they're doing just fine. They make a fortune selling the windmill zone. I think really that's one that they wouldn't be surprised if it stopped. They are shocked that it continues to go. They're very friendly with me. They're shocked that people continue to buy those damn things. They killed the birds. They ruined your landscapes. Other than that, I think they're fabulous, by the way. Stupid people buy them. The consequences of such destructive policies have been stark, including lower economic growth, lower standards of living, lower birth rates, more socially disruptive migration, more vulnerability to hostile foreign adversaries and much, much smaller militaries. The United States cares greatly about the people of Europe. We really do. I mean, look, I, I am derived from Europe. Scotland and Germany, 100 percent Scotland, my mother, 100 percent German, my father. And we believe deeply in the bonds we share with Europe as a civilization. I want to see it do great. That's why issues like energy trade, immigration and economic growth must be central concerns to anyone who wants to see a strong and united West. Because Europe and those countries have to do their thing. They have to get out of the culture that they've created over the last 10 years. It's horrible what they're doing to themselves. They're destroying themselves. It's beautiful, beautiful places. We want strong allies, not seriously weakened ones. We want Europe to be strong. Ultimately, these are matters of national security and perhaps no current issue makes the situation more clear than what's currently going on with Greenland. Would you like me to say a few words of Greenland?

I was going to leave it out of the speech, but I thought I think I would have been reviewed very negatively.

I have tremendous respect for both the people of Greenland and the people of Denmark. Tremendous respect. But every NATO ally has an obligation to be able to defend their own territory. And the fact is, no nation or group of nations is in any position to be able to secure Greenland other than the United States, where great power, much greater than people even understand. I think they found that out two weeks ago in Venezuela.

We saw this in World War II, when Denmark fell to Germany after just six hours of fighting and was totally unable to defend either itself or Greenland. So the United States was then compelled. We did it. We felt an obligation to do it, to send our own forces to hold the Greenland territory and hold it. We did at great cost and expense. They didn't have a chance of getting on it and they tried. Denmark knows that. We literally set up bases on Greenland for Denmark. We fought for Denmark. We weren't fighting for anyone else. We were fighting to save it for Denmark. Big, beautiful piece of ice. It's hard to call it land. It's a big piece of ice. But we saved Greenland and successfully prevented our enemies from gaining a foothold in our hemispheres. So we did it for ourselves also. And then after the war, which we won, we won it big without us. Right now, you'd all be speaking German and a little Japanese perhaps.

After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that, but we did it. But we gave it back. But how ungrateful are they now? So now our country and the world face much greater risks than it did ever before because of missiles, because of nuclear, because of weapons of warfare that I can't even talk about. Two weeks ago, they saw weapons that nobody ever heard of. They weren't able to fire one shot at us. They said, what happened? Everything was discombobulated. They said, we've got them in our sites. Press the trigger, and nothing happened. No anti-aircraft missiles went up. There was one that went up about 30 feet and crashed down right next to the people that sent it. They said, what the hell is going on?