Politics

Donald Trump has stepped up his demand to annex Greenland but said the US would not use force to seize it during a rambling, invective-laden speech at Davos where he once again lashed out at Europe’s political leaders.

The address to thousands of business and political leaders at the World Economic Form in the Swiss ski resort indicated that while the US president was renouncing the use of military force – for now at least – to wrest control of Greenland, he still intended to wield America’s economic and diplomatic power to bend European allies to his will.

He said he was “seeking immediate negotiations to once again discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States”.

“I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force. All the US is asking for is a place called Greenland,” he said. “You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no and we will remember.”

Ever the orator, Trump later offered this:

Trump at moments sought to needle his global audience, saying it was “stupid” for the US to cede Greenland to Denmark after the second world war, and that “without us, now you’d all be speaking German, or a little Japanese perhaps.” Davos is in the German-speaking part of Switzerland.

I will say that all the coverage of Davos has my back up because no one seems to know how to pronounce it. The "a" is very nearly a schwa, and the stress comes on the second syllable.