Geneva / Brussels / Copenhagen, January 20, 2026
Davos was meant to be a summit about cooperation.
Instead, it has become the setting for a reckoning between allies.
What began as a dispute over Greenland has transformed the World Economic Forum into an improvised emergency negotiation between President Donald Trump and Europe’s leadership, forcing a confrontation over sovereignty, trade, security, and the future of the transatlantic alliance itself.
The snow covered resort that usually hosts debates on globalization and climate finance now feels like a crisis theater in real time. Delegations are moving from meeting to meeting. Staff are drafting contingency plans. Markets are jittery. The conference’s formal panels have been eclipsed by corridor diplomacy, closed door talks, and tense face to face exchanges.
At the heart of the drama is Trump’s threat to impose sweeping tariffs on multiple European nations unless Greenland is ceded to the United States. The proposal has stunned allied governments and reshaped the mood in Davos from optimism to alarm. European stock indexes have slipped, and executives who arrived to discuss investment now speak openly about geopolitical risk.
Adding to the tension, Trump has been active late at night on Truth Social while Davos sleeps. In a series of posts, he accused Europe of benefiting from American generosity, argued that the United States had long subsidized its allies through favorable trade terms, and warned that tariffs would remain until a deal for the complete purchase of Greenland was reached. Some of his posts included provocative imagery suggesting American dominance in the Arctic, reinforcing the personal and confrontational tone of the standoff.
With 10 percent tariffs set to begin on 1 February and potentially rising to 25 percent by June, the calendar has turned Davos into a race against time. Instead of keynote speeches, diplomats are trading urgent messages. Instead of networking dinners, leaders are holding crisis talks. The mountain town has become the cockpit of a transatlantic confrontation few anticipated.
The military face of the reckoning
Inside Davos, European leaders have reacted with visible alarm. Officials from across the EU and NATO have condemned Trump’s tariff threats as blackmail and warned of a dangerous downward spiral in relations. Parallel emergency consultations are underway in Brussels, with options ranging from retaliatory duties on roughly 93 billion euros of U.S. goods to activation of the bloc’s powerful anti coercion instrument.
Beyond trade, the crisis is spilling into security policy. Denmark has deployed additional troops to Nuuk and Kangerlussuaq, officially as part of Operation Arctic Endurance, a NATO aligned exercise meant to signal that Greenland’s sovereignty is backed by collective defense.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has used his presence in Davos to engage Trump’s team on Arctic security, but the atmosphere remains strained. Quiet discussions are already taking place about more permanent NATO rotations in Greenland, suggesting that European leaders expect the Arctic to remain contested well beyond this summit.
The economic face of the reckoning
For business leaders in Davos, the tariff threat has been impossible to ignore. Conversations about green growth and supply chains have been overtaken by questions about whether transatlantic trade is entering a new era of instability. Several European officials have privately suggested that broader EU U.S. trade negotiations could be frozen if Washington continues to tie economic pressure to territorial claims.
Public opinion across Europe has also hardened. Demonstrations under banners reading Greenland is not for sale have reinforced the message that leaders returning from Davos will face domestic pressure not to yield.
The global stakes playing out in the Alps
Trump has framed Greenland as essential to U.S. national security, linking his stance to broader geopolitical competition with Russia and China in the Arctic. Yet in Davos, critics argue that using tariffs to force territorial concessions risks undermining the very alliance structures that have underpinned Western security since World War II.
To many European officials, this is no longer just a dispute about Greenland. It is a test of whether the United States still views its allies as partners or as bargaining chips.
A reckoning between allies in Davos
Against this backdrop, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stepped onto the Davos stage to deliver a pointed response.
She sharply criticized Trump’s tariff plan, calling it a strategic mistake that jeopardizes Europe’s economic security and decades of partnership. She insisted that Danish and Greenlandic sovereignty are non-negotiable, and that territorial questions cannot be settled through economic coercion.
Von der Leyen also signaled that Brussels is preparing a broader Arctic security and investment package, making clear that Europe intends to respond with unity rather than acquiescence. Her remarks crystallized what many in Davos now believe this week represents not just a policy dispute, but a defining moment for the West.
The question Davos will leave behind
Davos began as a marketplace of ideas.
It may be remembered as the moment the West confronted itself.
As leaders descend from the Alps, one question will linger. Was Davos the place where a crisis was defused, or the place where the transatlantic alliance began to unravel?
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