U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks throughout a “Nice, Historic Funding in Rural Well being Roundtable” within the East Room of the White Home on Jan. 16, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Pictures
President Donald Trump mentioned Friday he could impose tariffs on international locations “if they do not go together with Greenland.”
“We’d like Greenland for nationwide safety. So I could do this,” Trump mentioned on the White Home throughout a health-care-related occasion.
The feedback present Trump, whose push to amass Greenland for the U.S. has grown more and more aggressive in current months, turning to considered one of his favourite instruments for leveraging energy over international nations.
The White Home didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for extra info on Trump’s remarks.
The Trump administration has beforehand mentioned it’s weighing a number of choices, together with using the U.S. army, with the intention to take over the Danish territory.
Trump asserts it’s important that America personal Greenland — despite the fact that the U.S. already maintains a army base there — due to nationwide safety considerations posed by China and Russia.
The White Home has additionally mentioned the U.S. is contemplating making a suggestion to purchase the Arctic island. However Greenland and Denmark have repeatedly insisted that the territory will not be on the market and has no want to be absorbed into America.
Trump’s suggestion that he could wield tariffs to get his approach on Greenland got here after he described an analogous technique to power international international locations to lift their drug costs.
Trump has pushed to decrease the price of U.S. medicine by mandating that home costs match decrease ones paid abroad.
On the White Home occasion Friday, Trump mentioned he threatened the leaders of a number of international locations to both increase drug costs as a part of a “most favored nations” deal, or else face heavy tariffs on all their imports to the U.S.
“I could do this for Greenland too. I could put a tariff on international locations if they do not go together with Greenland, as a result of we’d like Greenland for nationwide safety,” Trump mentioned.
A delegation from Greenland and Denmark, after assembly with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Thursday, mentioned they’ve a “elementary disagreement” with Trump.
Trump has drastically expanded the federal government’s use of tariffs since retaking workplace, elevating the general common tariff charge to an estimated 17%.
Lots of his broadest levies have been invoked utilizing the Worldwide Emergency Financial Powers Act, or IEEPA. The administration’s use of that legislation has been repeatedly challenged, and a number of courts have discovered the actions illegal.
The dispute has been elevated to the Supreme Court docket, which might quickly ship its ruling on the legality of Trump’s IEEPA tariffs.
Trump has claimed that his agenda would unravel if the excessive court docket guidelines towards him.
“I hope we win the Supreme Court docket case, as a result of if we do not, [it’d] be a disgrace for our nation,” he mentioned Friday.
