Davos rattled by Trump’s Greenland push and tariffs (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: We have to fix prosperity in democracies. I mean, it doesn't make sense to have tariffs and be divided, and even to threaten now with additional tariffs. We can use... I mean, the crazy thing is that we can be put in a situation to use the anti-coercion mechanism for the very first time vis-à-vis the U.S. if they put additional tariffs. Can you imagine that?

[00:00:23] Speaker 2: This is crazy. World leaders assembling right now in Davos, Switzerland, for the annual World Economic Forum. President Trump arrives there tomorrow, facing European allies deeply perplexed and very worried by his escalating threats to take over Greenland. This morning on social media, he posted this AI-generated image of him planting the U.S. flag in Greenland with a sign declaring it a U.S. territory established this year. Overnight, the president added his own baffling twist by leaking this private message from the French president Emmanuel Macron. And I'm quoting now, My friend, we are totally in line on Syria. We can do great things on Iran. I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland. End quote. And just a short time ago at the forum, Macron criticized President Trump's policies. Listen.

[00:01:17] Speaker 1: Without collective governance, cooperation gives way to relentless competition. Competition from the United States of America through trade agreements that undermine our export interests demand maximum concessions and openly aim to weaken and subordinate Europe, combined with an endless accumulation of new tariffs that are fundamentally unacceptable, even more so when they are used as leverage against territorial sovereignty.

[00:01:47] Speaker 2: Let's go live right now to CNN's Kevin Liptack over at the White House. Kevin, the president speaks tomorrow at the Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Do we know what his message will be?

[00:01:57] Speaker 3: You know, heading into this summit, the White House has said that the president would use this address to talk about the United States' economic resurgence in his view to talk about this question of affordability. But clearly, this entire summit up in the Swiss Alps is now gaining a new degree of urgency as these European leaders rush to try and get in front of President Trump to talk him down off of these Greenland threats or at least to gain some sense of understanding of what exactly his ambitions are. And you saw that in that text message from the French president Emmanuel Macron, even inviting President Trump to Paris for an emergency G7 summit after Davos to try and get a better understanding of what the president is trying to do here. And we know those remarks from Macron earlier today were really kind of remarkable. He's talking about a shift towards a world without rules, where international law is trampled underfoot, talking about imperial ambitions. He's not talking necessarily about Russia or China here. He's talking about the United States, a staunch U.S. ally, which I think just gives you a sense of this moment that the president seems to have brought the entire Western alliance to. Now, Macron is not the only leader that has been messaging with Trump to try and talk about this. The president also posted a message from Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, who has spent the entire last year trying to cultivate President Trump. What Rutte said is that he was going to spend his time at Davos talking about President Trump's foreign policy accomplishments, really kind of a sycophantic message, and saying that he was committed to finding a way forward on Greenland. Now, it doesn't seem as any of this is having much of an effect on President Trump. He was out yesterday talking about Greenland, really sort of hardened in his position. He does say that he's committed to a meeting with various parties in Davos to discuss all of this, but he said that he had expressed to everyone, quote, very plainly, that Greenland was an imperative for the entire world's security and that there could be no going back. So, as President Trump said yesterday, this is going to be a very interesting Davos.

[00:04:08] Speaker 2: It certainly will be. Kevin Liptak of the White House for us. Thank you very much. And joining us now, the former U.S. ambassador to NATO, Ambassador Kurt Volker. Ambassador, thanks so much for joining us. You're there in Davos. President Trump overnight shared a text message from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, that said in part, and I'm quoting him now, I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland, end quote. What do you make of this latest text message now released by the president, President Trump, and the president of France?

[00:04:38] Speaker 4: Yeah, well, first off, the president of France can't be very happy that President Trump is sharing his text messages publicly. But that being said, I think President Macron was saying it very genuinely. Talking to Europeans here in Davos and earlier this past 10 days or so in Brussels and in London, people simply don't understand why President Trump thinks he needs to own Greenland. We recognize that Greenland is part of Danish territory by treaty. Denmark recognizes that the U.S. has the right to put any military facilities on Greenland that we feel that we need to. We have that agreement with them. And Europeans are prepared to help. They're prepared to provide host nation support, to provide some additional forces or some additional capabilities. So everyone is ready to work with the United States, and yet President Trump is insisting on owning it without having to find specifically what it is that he needs to do.

[00:05:30] Speaker 2: Ambassador, let me play for you and for our viewers out there what President Macron of France said this morning. Listen to this.

[00:05:39] Speaker 1: And conflict has become normalized, hybrid, expanding into new demands, space, digital information, cyber, trade, and so on. It's as well a shift towards a world without rules. Where international law is trampled underfoot.

[00:06:01] Speaker 2: How concerning are his comments, you think?

[00:06:05] Speaker 4: Well, I think he is showing that he is very concerned. And we've heard comments from President Trump and from Stephen Miller talking about spheres of influence, talking about how there are no laws. It is the law of the powerful, the iron law of force that decides everything. That is very, very concerning to Europeans who have built a relationship of trust with the United States and where the U.S. has invested for decades in building the largest, freest, most democratic, most prosperous, secure space in the world, this transatlantic area, which is allied with the United States. So to be tearing all that up and saying, no, it's just the rule of those who are strongest, that is very, very concerning to Europe.

[00:06:50] Speaker 2: One European official says the NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, a Trump confidant, seems convinced the deal is possible to give the president an off-ramp. Do you believe there is a feasible off-ramp right now for President Trump?

[00:07:06] Speaker 4: Well, if he wants it, yes, there is. President Trump has identified two issues that he says are important. One of them is security in the Arctic, and only the U.S. can provide that, and the U.S. needs to have unfettered access and do what it needs to do. That can be done already under the 1951 treaty with Denmark. The second thing he identified is access to mineral resources in Greenland. Again, there is no obstacle to U.S. access to mineral resources in Greenland other than the ice sheet that covers the island. So it is expensive and difficult, but there's no other impediment, legal or political or otherwise. So if we come up with a formula that identifies and specifies the U.S. has these rights to do anything it needs to militarily for security of North America, to access mineral rights there, and we could even go so far as to suggest that the bases that the U.S. has in Greenland, we can have more of them. We used to have 17. We're down to one. We can build back up again if we want to, and those bases could even be sovereign U.S. territory, but not all of Greenland and the people of Greenland who do not want to be part of the United States.

[00:08:16] Speaker 2: In referring to President Trump's aspirations to acquire Greenland, the Danish foreign minister told reporters, and I'm quoting him now, there are red lines which can't be crossed. What do you believe those red lines are?

[00:08:30] Speaker 4: Sovereignty. It is the United States forcibly taking away territory from a NATO ally. That would be unacceptable to Denmark and unacceptable to the people of Greenland who do not want to be part of the United States. So insisting or demanding or just, frankly, de facto taking Greenland, that would be a huge red line for Denmark and for, frankly, all of our European allies. I just have to point out the NATO treaty is about protecting the territory of all our NATO allies, including the United States. It was invoked only once when the United States was attacked by our allies to support the United States. And if we begin taking territory away from our allies, we can basically say the NATO alliance is over.

[00:09:14] Speaker 2: I want to play for you and for our viewers what the House Speaker, Mike Johnson, said in an interview this morning on a British news station.

[00:09:25] Speaker 5: I'm here to encourage our friends and calm the situation. Look, I think we're going to get beyond this little rift. I don't think it's a threat to NATO or to this special relationship that we have in the long run.

[00:09:38] Speaker 2: What does it say to you, Ambassador, that Speaker Johnson is trying to calm the waters and is playing down the fears over President Trump's possible actions in Greenland?

[00:09:49] Speaker 4: Well, look, I think that he's right to try to do that, that we don't want to see Europe retaliate against the United States. These tariffs were announced. Let's hope that they're not implemented. Let's see how the U.S. and Danish delegations meet and discuss. Remember, the Danish foreign minister and Greenlandic foreign minister met with Secretary of State Rubio and Vice President Vance last week. They agreed to set up a high-level working group. They agreed to keep talking. If they can come up with a formula that satisfies the United States' substantive requirements, militarily, economically, politically, then that would be a soft landing, and where we should aim to go. The problem has been President Trump's insistence on simply the idea of ownership. I think we should put that aside, talk about what we really need, and then get that, and that would be a great victory for President Trump.

[00:10:41] Speaker 2: The former U.S. ambassador to NATO, Ambassador Kurt Volker, thanks so much for joining us.