Greenland row fuels NATO tensions as Trump heads to Davos (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Donald Trump has denied his desire to take over Greenland could result in the breakup of NATO, the Transatlantic Security Alliance. Speaking at a news conference marking one year since he was sworn in for a second time as president, he told the BBC nobody's done more for NATO than I have, citing the pressure he's applied to European countries to raise their spending. It followed a day of insults from Mr Trump, lambasting the UK and revealing private messages from President Macron and the Secretary General of NATO. He also posted a picture of Greenland and Canada covered in the US flag. He'll come face to face with some of those he's been attacking tomorrow in Davos in Switzerland at the annual gathering of world and business leaders. We'll be live there in a moment, but first, Sarah Smith, who was at Mr Trump's news conference in Washington, has our top story tonight.

[00:00:52] Speaker 2: It's certainly not subtle, but it makes the point. President Trump himself posting this AI image on social media of his own country. He's implanting a US flag on Greenland. And this one, showing his supposed NATO allies, his plans for Greenland and even Canada. Remember, he won't rule out using military force against another NATO member. If a consequence of your determination to take control of Greenland is the ultimate breakup of the NATO alliance, is that a price you're willing to pay?

[00:01:22] Speaker 3: You mean the breakup of... It's very interesting. So I think something's going to happen that's going to be very... Very good for everybody. Nobody's done more for NATO than I have, as I said before, in every way. Getting them to go up to 5% of GDP was something that nobody thought was... And pay. At 2%, they weren't paying. At 5%, they are paying. And they're buying a lot of things from us, and they're giving them, I guess, to Ukraine. That's up to them, but they're giving them to whoever they're giving them to. But they're buying a lot. I think that we... We'll work something out where NATO's going to be very happy, and where we're going to be very happy. But we need it for security purposes. We need it for national security, and even world security. It's very important. How about...

[00:02:11] Speaker 2: President Trump was here in person today to celebrate his first year in office. But, of course, it's what he's going to do next that we all want to know. He was asked, how far is he prepared to go over Greenland? And all he said was, you'll find out. Last night, while flying back to Washington, he laid into some of the European leaders usually considered his closest friends, posting criticism of the UK for planning to give away the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, saying it's an act of great stupidity. He revealed a fawning text message from the NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, which said, I'm committed to finding a way forward on Greenland. Signing off, can't wait to see you. Yours, Mark. And one from the French President Emmanuel Macron, which said, I do not understand what you're doing on Greenland. And suggested meeting for dinner in Paris on Thursday. Not happening, according to the White House. In a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, wearing sunglasses due to an eye infection, Macron attacked the threat of trade tariffs designed to weaken and subordinate Europe and a new world order where might makes right.

[00:03:17] Speaker 4: It's at all a shift towards a world without rules. Where international law is trampled underfoot. And where the only law that seems to matter is that of the strongest. And imperial ambitions are resurfacing.

[00:03:37] Speaker 2: Donald Trump will land like an avalanche in Davos tomorrow and reiterate his territorial demands. Today, the Canadian Prime Minister echoed Greenland's right to sovereignty.

[00:03:48] Speaker 5: Every day, we're reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry. That the rules-based order is fading. That the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.

[00:04:05] Speaker 2: Also in Davos, the Democrat governor of California, who said world leaders need to stand up to President Trump, not try to pacify him.

[00:04:13] Speaker 6: It's time to stand tall and firm, have a backbone. This is diplomacy with Donald Trump. He's a T-Rex. You mate with him or he devours you. One or the other.

[00:04:25] Speaker 2: President Trump says he's not spoken to either Sir Keir Starmer, or Emmanuel Macron since his social media posts about them. But he doesn't think there will be a problem.

[00:04:33] Speaker 3: I think I get along very well with them. I mean, they always treat me well. They get a little bit rough when they're, you know, when I'm not around. But when I'm around, they treat me very nicely. And, you know, I like both of them.

[00:04:47] Speaker 2: Another AI image of American Revolutionary War soldiers charging across the Arctic. It demonstrates Donald Trump's diplomatic approach, his determination to take over Greenland, and his unorthodox ways of trying to make it happen. Sarah Smith, BBC News, Washington. So, President Trump says he thinks that we can work something out that will make everybody very happy over Greenland, and that he has lots of meetings lined up when he gets to Davos tomorrow to talk about this. But he's also making it very clear that he won't be very happy unless he has total control of Greenland, unless he owns the territory. So the question is, does he have some grand compromise in mind that really will satisfy everybody who is embroiled in this debate, or is he just determined to have his own way? We might find out tomorrow.

[00:05:38] Speaker 1: OK, Sarah, thank you. Sarah Smith there, North America editor, live at the White House. Well, at this evening's news conference in Washington, Mr Trump said he actually got on very well with Sakhir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron. But there's clearly unease in London, Paris and elsewhere over the status of Greenland and the durability of the 80% of the country. So, let's take a look at that. Let's take a look at that. Let's take a look at that. The 20-year-old transatlantic alliance. Katia Adler and Chris Mason are with me now. Katia, to you first. The late-night tweets, the revealing of private messages with other world leaders. This is a type of diplomacy that is just difficult to manage.

[00:06:12] Speaker 7: I mean, can we call it diplomacy? It really isn't a way normally of conducting international diplomacy, is it? That in itself, though, Clive, isn't a problem. The real problem here is that Europe's leaders feel they're looking at the utter breakdown in transatlanticism. And they feel that there is a showdown looming tomorrow in Davos. And the turning point has been Greenland. Because, of course, the world was shocked at Donald Trump's military intervention in Venezuela. But here with Denmark and Greenland, we're looking at him turning on an ally in the Defence Alliance NATO and then turning on other allies who want to support Denmark, saying, get back in your box, otherwise I'm going to slam you with economic pain. And that has been a red line for the Europeans. But what to do? Because up till now, Clive, European leaders have been following a policy of appeasement with Donald Trump, trying to keep him on side. They need him for their own security. They need him to find a durable peace in Ukraine. But what they're beginning to realise is they weren't safeguarding anything. They were enabling a US president who, behind closed doors, they say, is frankly bullying. And so they say they've got to put an end to it. They're also beginning to realise he seems to back off those who actually stand up to him. So the EU, which is a massive power on the trade, has prepared a whole raft of possible economic measures that could cause real pain to US businesses. But before they launch that, they want to come eyeball to eyeball with Donald Trump in Davos tomorrow and see whether he really means what he's saying over Greenland, Denmark and the new tariffs.

[00:07:44] Speaker 1: Sure. Chris, for Sakhir Starmer, his policy has been engagement, keep talking, keep him at the table, appease him to a degree. Then the British... The British are slagged off over the Chagos Islands when, in fact, the White House seemed to sign off on this deal months ago.

[00:08:03] Speaker 8: Quite. And so absolutely central to the Prime Minister's approach, as you say, to Donald Trump over the last year, has been to try and make a wildly unpredictable president as predictable as possible. And you can argue it's one of his biggest achievements, the Prime Minister, in office. And it's the central plank of British foreign policy at the moment. And that's why that Truth Social post relating to the Chagos Islands, first thing this morning, UK time, was so striking. Because, yes, of course, there's been the row over Greenland, but here was a moment where ministers, privately and publicly, couldn't work through why this had happened. Because initially they're thinking, well, hang on a minute, the president has spoken publicly in favour of this. So has Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State. Now, the element that they hold on to, because they don't know how he might react next, albeit it was a bit more emollient in that news conference tonight, is that in that... In that same post, he was talking, as Katja was referring to, to his frustrations over Greenland. So the hope in Whitehall is that this is a one-off flashpoint because of his frustrations with Europe and the UK and the stance they've taken over Greenland, and he was lashing out in the context of the Chagos Islands. But the bottom line is, people in government here just don't know what is coming next. They hope it's a one-off, but they can't be certain. And so that does raise questions about how they continue... how they continue to handle the White House. Their view tonight is they'll continue to be, as they see it, pragmatic, not lashing out in public in return, in the hope that they can return that relationship to something as predictable as it's ever going to be with a man of the character of Donald Trump.

[00:09:42] Speaker 1: Sure. All right, Chris, thank you for that. Stick around. We're going to get more from you in a minute. Katja Adler, our Europe editor, many thanks for that. We're heading over to Davos now, in Switzerland, for that gathering of the rich and powerful and where Donald Trump, as we've been saying, will be putting in... an appearance tomorrow at the World Economic Forum. Faisal Islam is live there for us now. All eyes once again, Faisal, on Mr Trump and his big arrival.

[00:10:07] Speaker 9: Yes, Clive, this is a critical moment for the way the world economy, the world, is run, and it will reach its crescendo, as you say, in that building behind me when Donald Trump addresses this forum tomorrow afternoon. And it's been likened to a new sheriff being in town with new rules. His rules? Perhaps no rules. And we will seek answers. The world here will seek answers to those questions about Greenland, those questions fundamentally about whether he is serious about increasing the territorial footprint of the United States of America, something met with bewilderment and bafflement here. But bigger things about the rule of law, whether might is right. But I do think at that moment it started today. You heard some of those speeches from other world leaders, and they may have reached the end of their tether, using words like neocolonial, like bullying, but also in terms of Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, saying the rest of the world should join together, copy Canada, and diversify away from America to other parts of the world. So you're just starting to see a reaction from the rest of the world, who have been, to some degree, appeasing Donald Trump, now starting to say maybe we should join together and maybe this will work. Maybe this needs to end. And we'll see if those instincts, how they mash together in that hall tomorrow when Donald Trump gives his speech to a basically European audience.