Donald Trump has called Denmark “ungrateful” and said the United States were “stupid” for giving Greenland back to the European nation after World War Two.
On Wednesday afternoon, the US president addressed world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
In a typically rambling speech, Trump reasserted his desire to acquire Greenland from Denmark, an issue that has caused huge tensions between the US and Europe.
Of course, there was little sense of diplomacy in Trump’s speech, something that was left in no doubt when he called Denmark “ungrateful.”
Trump ranted about how the US had “saved” Greenland in World War Two, before giving it back to Denmark after the conflict.
The Republican repeated one of his favourite claims that the US won World War Two for Europe, saying everyone in the room would be ‘speaking German or Japanese’ without America.
He then suggested the US had been “stupid” to hand Greenland – which he called a ‘big beautiful piece of ice’ – back to Denmark.
“It’s hard to call it land, it’s a big beautiful piece of ice,” he said. “But we saved Greenland in World War Two.
“Then after the war, which we won big – without us, right now you’d all be speaking German and a little Japanese perhaps – we gave Greenland back to Denmark.
“How stupid were we to do that? But we did it, we gave it back. But how ungrateful are they now?”
Trump called for “immediate negotiations” on the US acquiring Greenland, but did say he does not “want to use force.”
“We won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive force, we’d be unstoppable, but we won’t do that,” Trump said.
But he insisted: “I don’t have to use force, I don’t want to use force, I won’t use force.”