LONDON (AP) – No more glowing praise. No more political solutions and old-style diplomacy. And no one calls Donald Trump “Daddy” now.
European leaders who have struggled for a year to figure out how to deal with an emboldened second-term US president have come closer to saying “no” or something diplomatically similar to his disregard for international law and his demands for their territory. Trump’s vow to seize Greenland and punish any country that resists appears to have been the crucible.
“Red lines” were seen as being crossed this year when Trump suddenly revived his demand for the United States to “absolutely” rule Greenland, the semi-autonomous region that is part of NATO ally Denmark. This prompted even the mildest of diplomats to issue sharp warnings against Trump, whom they lavished with royal treatment and effusive praise.
“Britain will not give away” its support for Greenland’s sovereignty, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said. Several of the continent’s leaders said “Europe will not be blackmailed” over Greenland.
“Threats have no place among allies,” said Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.
The tough diplomatic talk surrounding last week’s showdown in Davos, Switzerland, wasn’t the only factor weighing on Trump. US congressional elections are approaching in November amid a falling stock market and weak approval ratings. Nor are European leaders the first to stand in Trump’s way during his second term — see Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
But the dramatic shift among Europe’s elite, from “accomplishing” Trump to defying him, hints at an ongoing struggle among some nations over how to say “no” to a president who hates hearing it and is known to fight back.
“We want a piece of ice for the protection of the world and they won’t give it,” Trump told his audience at the World Economic Forum. “You can say yes and we’ll be very grateful. Or you can say no and we’ll remember.”
Lesson 1: Speak as one
In recent days, Europe has offered abundant refusals to go along with Trump, from his request in Greenland and to join his new Peace Council, and even to what Canadian Mark Carney called the “fiction” that the alliance works to benefit any country more than the most powerful. The moment marked a unity among European leaders that they had struggled to achieve for a year.
“When Europe is not divided, when we are united and when we are clear and strong also in our desire to defend ourselves, then the results will show,” said Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. “I think I learned something.”
Federiksen herself exemplified the learning curve. A year ago, she and other leaders were on their toes and largely answerable to the Trump administration. She saw fit to tell reporters in February 2025, “We’re not a bad ally,” after Vice President JD Vance said Denmark was “not a good ally.”
Trump is transactional. He has little use for diplomacy and no need for “international law,” he told The New York Times this month. Here was the disconnect between the usually collaborative European leaders and the Republican president as he stormed back into the White House saying he wanted the US to take over Greenland, Panama and maybe even Canada.
“In Trump’s first term, Europe didn’t know what to expect and tried to deal with him using the old rules of diplomacy, with the expectation that if they continued with him on measured terms, he would change his behavior and move into the club,” said Mark Shanahan, associate professor of political engagement at the University of Surrey.
“It’s very difficult for other leaders to deal with each other through the beauty of a rules-based system and a diplomatic conversation,” Shanahan said. “It’s hard for them to change.”
Five months after Trump’s inauguration last year, with his Greenland threat in the air, European leaders had come to terms with Trump’s leadership enough to hold a meeting of NATO nations in the Netherlands. NATO members agreed to contribute more and gave Trump credit for forcing them to modernize.
Secretary General Mark Rutte, known as the coalition’s “Trump whisperer”, likened the president’s role in de-escalating the Iran-Israel war to a “daddy” intervening in a schoolyard brawl.
Lesson 2: Consider saying no – and make choices accordingly
Traditional diplomacy exists to preserve the possibilities of working together. That often means avoiding saying “no” outright if possible. But Trump’s Greenland gambit was such a powerful threat from one NATO member to another that Greenland’s prime minister actually said the word.
“Enough is enough,” Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a statement shortly after Trump’s Jan. 5 remarks. “No pressure. No more clues. No more annexation fantasies.”
That played a role in setting the tone. Denmark’s leader said any such invasion of Greenland would spell the end of NATO and urged alliance members to take the threat seriously.
They did, issuing statement after statement rejecting the renewed threat. Trump responded last week from his Florida golf course with a threat to levy a 10 percent import tax within a month on goods from eight European nations — Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland. The rate, he wrote, would rise to 25 percent on June 1 if no agreement was reached for the United States’ “full and total acquisition of Greenland.”
Lesson 3: Reject Trump’s Great Power Paradigm
Trump’s fighting words ignited a fire among leaders arriving in Davos. But they also seemed to recognize that Trump’s world had left him vulnerable.
“Trump was in a pretty weak position because he has a lot of other issues looming” domestically, including an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision on his tariffs and a reaction to the immigration raids in Minnesota, said Duncan Snidal, professor emeritus of international relations at the University of Oxford and the University of Chicago.
Canada’s Carney said no, reframing the question as not about Greenland but whether it’s time for European countries to build strength together against a “bully” — and his answer was yes.
Without naming the US or Trump, Carney spoke directly: Europe, he said, should reject “coercion” and “exploitation” of the great power. It was time to accept, he said, that there had been a “rupture” in the alliance, not a transition.
Unsaid, Snidel pointed out, was that the rift was very new, and while it might be difficult to repair in the future, doing so under adjusted rules remains in US and European interests beyond the Trump presidency. “It’s too good a deal for everybody not to do,” Snidel said.
Lesson 4: Be cautious
Before Trump stepped away from the podium at Davos, he had begun to retreat.
He backtracked on his threat to use “force” to take over Greenland. Not long after, he completely reversed himself, announcing the “framework” for a deal that would make his tariff threat unnecessary.
Trump told Fox Business that “we’re going to have full access to Greenland” under the “framework,” without disclosing what that might mean.
Frederiksen pressed the warning button again. In a statement, she said: “We cannot negotiate on our sovereignty.”
In other words: “No.”