NATO members to face tariffs increasing to 25%

Eight NATO members’ goods sent to the U.S. will face escalating tariffs “until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland,” President Donald Trump announced Saturday.

The tariffs targeting Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland will start at 10% on Feb. 1, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

The tariffs will shoot up to 25% on June 1, the president said.

His post suggested that the new tariffs on the European allies were being imposed in response to them moving troops to Greenland. They took that step as the Trump administration has floated utilizing the U.S. military as part of its ramped-up efforts to acquire the Danish territory.

The eight countries “have journeyed to Greenland, for purposes unknown,” Trump wrote. “This is a very dangerous situation for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Planet.”

A day earlier, Trump hinted that he may pursue a tariff strategy on Greenland similar to the one he used to force foreign countries to lower drug prices.

“I may do that for Greenland too. I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security,” he said at the White House on Friday.

Across Europe, the targeted nations responded with condemnation, characterizing the tariffs as a hostile act against close military allies that threatens the very fabric of the trans-Atlantic partnership.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who spearheads the bloc’s trade policy, issued a sharp rebuke to the White House’s ultimatum, framing the tariffs not just as a trade dispute but as a test of Western values.

“We choose partnership and cooperation,” von der Leyen wrote in a post on Bluesky shortly after the announcement. “We choose our businesses. We choose our people.”

Likewise, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Thursday that the defense of Greenland is a “common concern” for the entire NATO alliance.

Trump’s latest move puts further strain on NATO, the 32-member military alliance established after World War II. The cornerstone of the alliance is an agreement that an attack on any single member is considered an attack on them all.

European leaders have warned that any attempt by the U.S. to take Greenland by force could spell the end of NATO.

Trump’s tariff announcement could signal he is dropping the threat of military action to achieve his longtime goal of taking over the island. But it nevertheless ratchets up pressure on Denmark and the rest of Europe, which have flatly stated that Greenland is not for sale.

Trump is an enthusiastic fan of using tariffs as a tool to gain political leverage over other countries. He has greatly expanded the government’s use of the levies over the past year, in large part by the controversial means of invoking a law granting the president certain powers during an economic emergency.

The Supreme Court could rule as soon as next week on whether to strike down the tariffs imposed under that law.

“There are no pressing security threats to Greenland,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told reporters Saturday morning.

Coons and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, led the trip to “restore a sense of trust” with Greenland, Coons said.

The two senators disputed Trump’s characterization of European troop movements as a conspiracy to block U.S. acquisition, instead praising the deployments as NATO partners “stepping up,” Coons said, to secure the High North against Russian aggression.

“Seeing active training and deployments into one of the harshest, most remote places on Earth… we should take as an encouraging signal,” Coons said.

Murkowski emphasized that despite the president’s attacks, support for Denmark remains strong across party lines.

“You cannot allow this to become a partisan matter,” she said. “Support for our friends and allies… should not be.”

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