Spanish
Washington,. - The two leaders of the US Senate legislative committee focused on NATO rejected this Saturday the threat of President, Donald Trump, to impose tariffs against eight European countries as retaliation for their opposition to Washington's desire to annex the island of Greenland.
In a statement, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Thom Tillis, who were part of a bipartisan congressional delegation that traveled to Denmark this week to meet with European officials, criticized the president's actions, stating that the countries he threatened are "the closest allies" of the United States.
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"Going down this path is bad for the U.S., bad for American companies, and bad for our allies; this kind of rhetoric also benefits adversaries like Putin and Xi, who want to see NATO divided," lawmakers pointed out.
Trump threatened to tax imports from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland, countries that have opposed his desire to take the island and have sent or announced that they will send troops to reinforce the military presence in the territory in the face of Washington's threats.Faced with this escalation in tensions, congressmen asked Trump to "drop the threats and move towards diplomacy".
Since his return to the White House in January 2025, the Republican has used tariffs as a political tool against his trading partners, raising rates on imports from Brazil and India by up to 50%, in retaliation for the treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro and the purchase of Russian crude oil, respectively. The words of the leader come after Denmark, on which the autonomous territory of Greenland depends, announced an immediate increase in its military presence on the island and the carrying out of maneuvers, in order to reduce Washington's concerns about the security of that island nation and the Arctic region. France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have joined the initiative and will also send troops to Greenland, coveted by the Trump administration with the argument of reinforcing its "national security" and preventing it from falling into the hands of China or Russia. The White House stated last Thursday that these moves do not affect "at all" Trump's goal of controlling Greenland, rich in precious metals and rare earths. The Danish government has insisted on the island's sovereignty and rejected Washington's claims, although it committed to the creation of a working group with the Trump Cabinet to address the "discrepancies" on the subject.
