Davos Notebook: Trump, Greenland, Security and Tech
Trump said he and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte's agreed on 'the framework of a future deal' on Greenland and the Arctic region.
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 21, 2026 (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he is dropping his threat to impose tariffs on several European countries, citing what he described as a new framework with NATO on Arctic security. The abrupt about-face comes shortly after he told the World Economic Forum in Davos that the U.S. would not use force to pursue control of Greenland.
John Strand
In his earlier speech, Trump reaffirmed his ambition to secure “right, title and ownership” of Greenland and urged NATO allies not to stand in the way, warning that refusals would carry consequences for the alliance.
Trump's address at the annual meeting of the elite in Switzerland tried to focus on his efforts to tame inflation and spur the economy back home. But his more than 70-minute address focused more on his gripes with other countries.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday called Trump’s planned new tariffs on eight EU countries over Greenland a “mistake” and questioned Trump’s trustworthiness. French President Emmanuel Macron said the EU could retaliate by deploying one of its most powerful economic tools, known colloquially as a trade “bazooka.”
Trump cancels tariff threat over Greenland and announces deal ‘framework’
Trump says he and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte agreed to “the framework of a future deal” on Greenland and the Arctic region that will take his Feb. 1 threat of tariffs off the table.
The announcement on his Truth Social platform came soon after he said in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he was backing off his threat of using military force to seize the Danish territory, which he says is crucial to U.S. national security.
Trump said further discussions are being held related to Greenland and his plans for a “Golden Dome” to protect the United States from long-range missiles. He added that further information will be available as discussions continue.
Trump says Danes will have to tell him their Greenland stance themselves
After a reporter asked Trump about Danish leaders’ rejection of his comments about acquiring Greenland, the U.S. president said “I don’t like getting it secondhand.”
In a speech at Davos earlier Wednesday, Trump insisted that he wants to “get Greenland, including right, title and ownership,” but said he would not use force to do so.
A Danish government official told The Associated Press afterward that Copenhagen is ready to discuss U.S. security concerns in the Arctic. But the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, underscored the government’s position that “red lines” — namely Denmark’s sovereignty — must be respected.
The reporter’s question came as Trump sat down for a bilateral conversation with Rutte of NATO.
Denmark is ready for more talks with US on Arctic security, Danish official says
Following Trump explicitly saying in his Davos remarks that he wasn’t considering military action to take Greenland, a Danish government official said Copenhagen remains ready to discuss how to go about addressing U.S. security concerns in the Arctic.
But the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, underscored the government’s position that “red lines” — namely Denmark’s sovereignty — must be respected.
Other technology-related news from Davos:
Trump touts efforts to address power supplies that AI data centers use
The president referenced a recent push by his administration to get tech companies to bid on contracts to build new power plants, so that data center operators, not regular consumers, pay for their own power needs.
“They’re building their own power plants, which when added up is more than any country anywhere in the world is doing,” Trump said.
White House AI czar says child safety is a priority but warns against overregulation
Trump’s top adviser on artificial intelligence, David Sacks, told a Davos crowd that “child safety has to be part of a larger regulatory framework” for AI but he warned against overregulating the technology.
Sacks acknowledged “horror stories” of AI chatbots that he says contributed to children harming themselves. But he also said billions of people, including many teenagers, are using AI without problems and it is “less addictive, more a utility,” when compared to social media.
“There’s been a little bit of a transference of the concerns that people have about social media onto AI and some of that transference is justified and some of it may not be,” Sacks said in a conversation with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.
Sacks called efforts across the 50 U.S. state governments to regulate AI a “little bit of a knee-jerk reaction” and one of the “great threats to innovation in the United States right now.”
Anthropic CEO warns against Nvidia chip sales to China
The CEO of leading Artificial Intelligence company Anthropic warned against the Trump administration’s recent move to greenlight sales of a powerful Nvidia chip to China, comparing it to selling nuclear weapon technology to North Korea.
Dario Amodei spoke Tuesday in a panel discussion on artificial general intelligence, or AGI, at Davos. AI companies, including Anthropic, are racing to develop AGI, which would outperform human intelligence but could also bring risks that could threaten humanity.
“Are we going to, you know, sell nuclear weapons to North Korea, and, you know, because that produces some profit for Boeing?” he said. “That analogy should just make clear how I see this trade-off."
Nvidia chief executive makes his Davos debut
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made his Davos debut, holding forth on the artificial intelligence boom that’s underpinned by his company’s advanced chips.
Sporting his signature black leather jacket, Huang told an audience that Europe should integrate AI with its strong industrial base to keep up with the global tech race dominated by the United States.
“This is your opportunity to now leap past the era of software. United States really led the era of software,” Huang said.
“Get in early now so that you can now fuse your industrial capability, your manufacturing capability with artificial intelligence,” he said, adding that physical AI in the form of robotics “is a once in a generation opportunity for the European nations.”
This article was written by the Associated Press.
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