European officials told CNN that President Donald Trump’s stance on Greenland has irrevocably changed transatlantic relations, even after he backed down on Wednesday from threatening a U.S. takeover of the autonomous territory of Denmark.
One European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, described last week as “a whirlwind of absurdities that damaged transatlantic relations, diverted attention from Ukraine and greatly pleased China and Russia.”
Tensions between the United States and its European allies, bound together under the collective security umbrella of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), came to a head over the weekend when President Trump threatened to impose tariffs on countries opposed to his ambition to annex Greenland, a vast and strategically important Arctic island that has belonged to Denmark for centuries.
There was a tense atmosphere at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, with Denmark and its European allies refusing to bow to Trump’s demands and considering deploying their own trade arsenal in retaliation.
In his keynote speech at Davos on Wednesday, President Trump ruled out using military force to annex Greenland, and after a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, he lifted threatened tariffs and announced a “framework for a future agreement” on Greenland.
However, the diplomatic turmoil he has caused over the past two weeks continues to linger, with serious implications for economic and diplomatic relations between the United States and Europe. A group of key members of the European Parliament blocked a vote on Wednesday to ratify the U.S.-Europe trade deal, highlighting tensions between the transatlantic allies.
“Trust has really been damaged and it will take time to repair,” Sweden’s Deputy Prime Minister Eva Busch told CNN.
“Apart from a very turbulent first year, the last few weeks have had a very negative impact on relations between the European Union, Europe and the United States.”
Still, reflecting Europe’s diplomatic tightrope walk, some European leaders emphasized the importance of the transatlantic alliance, even in its current tarnished form.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called on Europe to renew its faith in NATO, calling the alliance critical for the continent and for the United States as it navigates a new world order increasingly dominated by force.
“The old world order is disintegrating at a breathtaking pace,” he said in a speech at Davos on Thursday.
“We must make huge investments in our ability to protect ourselves. We must rapidly make our economies competitive. We must unite more closely among Europeans and among like-minded partners.”
He reiterated Germany’s support for Denmark and Greenland, and pointedly added that Berlin would defend “the fundamental principles of the transatlantic partnership: sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
“It’s all transactional and unpleasant, but we can still achieve a good result,” one European official told CNN in a slightly optimistic tone.
And Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gare Stoer emphasized that “NATO countries work very closely together every day.”
“Europe has challenges. The United States has challenges,” he told CNN. “But they’re all strong democracies and they’re all NATO allies. … We have strong national security to protect us, and we have a very proud history of working together to do that.”
The NATO alliance itself dates back 77 years, and over that time the American and European security structures have become intertwined. Lithuanian parliamentarian and former defense minister Dovile Shakarienė said the two sides are now so intertwined that any split would be “like the separation of Siamese twins, and it is very likely that both will surely die.”
“Europe is not ready to be isolated yet,” she told CNN. “It will take at least five to 10 years before we reach some level of parity with the U.S. military.”
Finnish President Alexander Stubbe acknowledged that the United States bears “the lion’s share of NATO’s defense,” but added that “it is in America’s vested interest to remain in NATO.”
In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, he said he believed the tensions were caused by different approaches to world affairs. Europe favors “multilateralism…a liberal world order, international institutions,” he suggested, while the United States leans toward “multipolarity…trade, trade, areas of interest.”
But for former European Council president Charles Michel, the past two weeks signaled “the end of transatlantic relations as we have known them for decades.”
He told CNN that Europe needs to go through a period of “political confrontation” with the United States reasserting its position ahead of an emergency summit of EU leaders convened to discuss President Trump’s threat to Greenland.
“Do we want to be forever vassals, humiliated vassals, or do we want to be masters of our own destiny?” he said.
Michel, whose tenure leading the European Council from 2019 to November 2024 overlapped with Trump’s first term, said he believed European leaders now needed a new approach to the US president.
“I think what we’ve done over the last few months has been a mistake,” he said. “We chose … flattery diplomacy. So we decided to appease the White House. And what is the effect? The only effect is that it fuels more and more ambition, and the rhetoric becomes more and more advanced. … It doesn’t work.”
