The Latest: Trump says he won’t use force to acquire Greenland in Davos address

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump insisted he wants to “get Greenland, including right, title and ownership,” but he said he wouldn’t employ force to achieve that — using his speech Wednesday at the World Economic Forum to repeatedly deride European allies and vow that NATO shouldn’t stand in the way of U.S. expansionism.

He urged NATO to allow the U.S. to take Greenland from Denmark and added an extraordinary warning, saying alliance members can say yes, “and we’ll be very appreciative. Or you can say, ‘No,’ and we will remember.”

Trump 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.”

Here is the latest:

President Emmanuel Macron’s office is disputing Trump’s assertion in Davos that he successfully pressured the French leader to increase prescription drug prices.

“It’s being claimed that President @EmmanuelMacron increased the price of medicines. He does not set their prices. They are regulated by the social security system and have, in fact, remained stable,” Macron’s office said in a post on X. “Anyone who has set foot in a French pharmacy knows this.”

It included a GIF of Trump speaking overlaid with the words, “FAKE NEWS!”

The president said while in a meeting with the Egyptian president that there will be “a lot” of countries represented on his Board of Peace.

“Some need parliamentary approval but for the most part, everybody wants to be on,” he said.

Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, talks to the media after the speech of President Donald Trump during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

“And there was boorish parts of it, but those were not even that consequential, including name-checking people he likes and people he didn’t like,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said. “Honestly, I was just a little disappointed.”

The Democratic governor, a frequent critic of Trump who’s eying a 2028 presidential run, has made himself available repeatedly to media this week in Davos.

“For a European audience, that may have been a new speech. My God, there wasn’t anything new about that speech for the American audience,” he said.

Referring to Trump’s comment that he won’t use military force to wrest Greenland for the United States: “I don’t think military force was ever real.”

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.”

The CEOs of Visa, Cisco, Salesforce, JPMorgan Chase and Amazon are among the high-profile figures gathering outside Trump’s upcoming Davos event with global business leaders.

Sports will also be represented there, with Baltimore Orioles owner David Rubenstein and FIFA president Gianni Infantino spotted among the expanding group.

While the spotlight is on Trump, some of the world’s most pressing issues are also being debated at Davos, including the war in Sudan, now approaching its third year.

During a panel discussion Wednesday, humanitarian groups pushed for stronger international engagement to end the fighting as well as more aid to civilians.

International Rescue Committee President and CEO David Miliband called the crisis in Sudan an “avatar for the world disorder.” He said the conflict has been internationalized — several outside powers reportedly arm and finance the warring sides — and said civilian deaths outnumber fighters killed.

Hanin Ahmed, head of the local aid initiative Emergency Response Rooms of Sudan, said the humanitarian situation is deteriorating across the country, including in areas not controlled by the Rapid Support Forces, citing food insecurity, lack of income due to prolonged job losses, and disease outbreaks.

The U.S. stock market is bouncing back from its worst day since October, although some signs of fear remain on Wall Street about Trump’s desire to take Greenland.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.7% on Wednesday after Trump said in his speech that he would not use force to take “the piece of ice.” The potential de-escalation in rhetoric around Greenland helped the index recover some of its 2.1% drop from the day before and pull closer to its all-time high set earlier this month.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 353 points, or 0.7%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% higher.

Treasury yields also held steadier in the bond market, a day after jumping in a potential signal of worries about higher inflation in the long term. They got help from a calming of government bond yields in Japan. The value of the U.S. dollar was also mixed against the euro, Swiss franc and other currencies after sliding the day before.

But some nerves seemed to remain in the market, and the price of gold rose another 2.1% and topped $4,800 per ounce for the first time.

▶ Read more about Wall Street’s reaction to Trump’s speech

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said after those individual meetings, which was expected to occur behind closed doors, the president will address business leaders. He will then meet with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen was in a meeting on Ukraine and didn’t hear Trump’s speech, but says he has been briefed on it.

He said in Copenhagen that it’s clear Trump’s intentions toward Greenland remain “intact,” Danish public broadcaster DR reported.

Of Trump’s statement that he won’t use force to acquire the island, Løkke Rasmussen said: “That is positive in isolation, but it doesn’t make the problem go away.”

Trump told Swiss President Guy Parmelin that his country was “great” and “beautiful.”

“You do make great watches, too,” he said during a brief part of the meeting that was open to the media.

Trump also clarified that he’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday, not Wednesday, as he said during his address.

Zelenskyy was in Kyiv on Wednesday, his communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said.

Trump returned to the White House a year ago. He marked Tuesday’s anniversary by presiding over a meandering, nearly two-hour-long press briefing to recount his accomplishments, repeating many false claims he made throughout 2025.

▶ Read the AP’s latest Fact Focus

The president did not make any major news in the discussion, which lasted about 20 minutes. Trump then left the stage.

Asked about U.S. debt climbing toward $40 trillion — more than the size of the annual U.S. economy — Trump insisted that he can solve the problem with economic growth and eliminating fraud and excessive spending.

“I think we’re going to be paying off debt,” he boasted.

Trump made similar promises when he first ran for president in 2016 and again in 2024. He has added more to U.S. debt totals than any president.

He repeated claims about fraud in Minnesota, mentioning the figure $19 billion — a miniscule fraction of annual federal spending that is measured in trillions. Trump also said the U.S. is cutting spending, although he has exaggerated the effects of his government efficiency efforts.

He gave them until Jan. 20 to comply with his demand.

It was unclear how Trump could unilaterally cap credit card interest rates. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said previously that the president has “an expectation” that credit card companies will accede to his demand that they cap interest rates on credit cards at 10%.

There are a handful of bills introduced by Republicans and Democrats to cap credit card interest rates, but House Speaker Mike Johnson has been cold to the idea.

Banks are highly resistant to the idea of capping credit card rates. In an interview at Davos, JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon said “it would be a disaster to the U.S. economy” to cap credit card rates, saying banks would close millions of credit card accounts in response.

It’s the first time he’s asked Congress to act on an issue that he demanded banks comply with only a couple weeks ago.

“Whatever happened to usury?” Trump said in his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Usury refers to the biblical prohibition to charge unreasonable interest on loans, and many states and countries had usury laws on the books up until the first half of the 20th Century.

Leaving vague exactly what kind of “culture” that he meant, Trump said the West has prospered because of a shared and “very special” one.

“This is the precious inheritance that America and Europe have in common,” Trump said. “We share it. But we have to keep it strong.”

Trump added that he wanted to “defend that culture” and “rediscover the spirit that lifted the West from the depths of the dark ages to the pinnacle of human achievement.”

Many Americans descend from Europeans, including settlers who came to the North American continent hundreds of years ago. But the Trump administration also has faced criticism at times for focusing on that side of U.S. culture when the country’s population is far more diverse.

“But equally importantly, we’re cracking down on more than $19 billion in fraud that was stolen by Somalian bandits,” Trump said, referring to ongoing fraud investigations in Minnesota that have focused on members of the diaspora. “Can you believe that— Somalia? They turned out to be higher IQ than we thought.”

It’s not the first time Trump has gone after the community in racist terms.

Last month, Trump said he did not want Somali immigrants in the U.S., saying residents of the war-ravaged eastern African country are too reliant on the U.S. social safety net and add little to the United States.

Somalis have been coming to Minnesota and other states, often as refugees, since the 1990s. The president made no distinction between citizens and noncitizens.

The president finished his speech by congratulating the people in the room for all their successes and declared that the U.S. is “back, bigger, stronger, better than ever before.”

“I’ll see you around,” he said.

He then sat down on a chair on stage for a question-and-answer session with World Economic Forum CEO Borge Brende, who was seated throughout Trump’s remarks.

He’s taken digs at French President Emmanuel Macron over Europe for selling pharmaceuticals to the U.S. at a premium. He ripped Denmark for a lack of appreciation for the U.S. protection of Greenland during World War II. And he’s blasted NATO for being too dependent on the United States.

“The United States is keeping the whole world afloat,” he said.

While speaking in Switzerland, Trump told a story about the country that he said “rubbed me the wrong way.”

He said Switzerland makes beautiful Rolex watches, but “were paying nothing to the United States” to export them. So, he set a tariff, which he said caused representatives from the country and the company to call and visit him and urge him to reverse it.

He brought down the tariff, but said he felt the country was “taking advantage” of the U.S.

“A majority of the money they make is because of us, because we never charge them anything,” he said.

Talking about the U.S. market, Trump threw a curveball, saying essentially that he didn’t want to simply expand housing supply because it could lower values for people who already own homes.

“If I want to really crush the housing market, I could do that so fast,” he said. But, “I don’t want to do anything to hurt” people who have built wealth through their home equity.

“I don’t want to do anything to hurt” existing homeowners, Trump said. He instead emphasized his desire to see lower interest rates, though that is a policy that, over time, would drive home prices up because it fuels demand.

Trump mocked French President Emmanuel Macron’s sunglasses to audience’s laughter.

“I watched him yesterday with those beautiful sunglasses. What the hell happened?” Trump said to the loudest laughter so far.

The French president has worn sunglasses indoors in recent days as he’s joked about a “completely harmless” eye condition.

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▶ Read more about Macron

Trump asserted that Denmark promised to spend “over $200 million to strengthen Greenland’s defenses” and then insisted it has “spent less than 1% of that.”

He was referring to a 2019 commitment from the Danish government, made during Trump’s first presidency, when he first floated the idea of the U.S. taking control of the semiautonomous territory of Denmark.

Copenhagen has not disputed that the implementation of that commitment has been slow.

In recent weeks, with Trump pushing the U.S. takeover again, Denmark’s Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen unveiled an expanded defense plan with a $2 billion budget that includes three new ships, long-range drones and more satellite capacity.

Trump did not mention that latest commitment.

“We want a piece of ice for world protection, and they won’t give it,” Trump said in Davos speech.

“You can say yes and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no and we will remember.”

Trump needled his northern neighbor after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday that the current phase of global diplomacy was a “rupture” and called for “middle powers” to “act together.”

Trump said Canada gets many “freebies” from the U.S. and “should be grateful.”

He said Carney’s Davos speech showed he “wasn’t so grateful.”

“Canada lives because of the United States,” Trump said. “Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

Before the audience in Davos, Trump repeated a claim he’s said before that the Russian war on Ukraine “wouldn’t have started” if the 2020 U.S. presidential election “weren’t rigged.”

One thing is for certain: The 2020 election was not stolen. Biden earned 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232. Trump’s allegations of massive voting fraud have been broadly refuted.

Trump, who has long been calling for prosecutions related to the 2020 election, added that “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did.” It wasn’t immediately clear what he meant.

Trump reiterated that he’s getting cooperation from Venezuelan officials following the ouster of Nicolás Maduro and predicted good times for the South American country’s economy.

“Every major oil company is coming in with us,” Trump said. ’It’s amazing.”

Earlier this month, at a White House meeting, Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods said the Venezuelan market is “un-investable” in its current state.

It is the first time Trump has ruled out using force, having previously been vague about how far he is willing to go in his push.

The president said the U.S. “probably won’t get anything” unless he decided to “use excessive strength and force” that he said would make the U.S. “frankly unstoppable.”

“But I won’t do that. Okay?” Trump said.

He added a minute later: “I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.”

Trump called for “immediate negotiations” for the U.S. to acquire Greenland from Denmark during his speech at Davos.

The president also lashed out at Denmark for being “ungrateful” for the U.S. protection of the Arctic island during World War II and continued to make his case that the U.S. needs to control the island for the sake of national security.

“This enormous unsecured island is actually part of North America,” Trump said. “That’s our territory.”

The president cited the difficulty of mining on the Arctic island.

“You got to go through hundreds of feet of ice,” he said. That’s not the reason we need it.”

Instead, he said the U.S. needs it for “strategic national security and international security.”

Windmills are “all over Europe” and are “losers” bought by “stupid people,” the U.S. president said.

He made it clear that it was European nations that were the “stupid people” buying windmills from China.

It’s part of his broad claims about energy. Trump is promoting oil and coal, traditional fossil fuels, and nuclear energy, while blasting newer, cleaner energy sources.

Calling windmills “those damn things,” he renewed his critiques that they “kill the birds” and “ruin the landscapes."

Trump mused that China owns the international windmill market but doesn’t use them within its borders.

Within 20 minutes of starting his speech, Trump had already criticized Europe several times.

He said he was European in heritage and wants to see it do well, but argued European countries are “destroying themselves.”

On windmills, immigration and trade, he tore into the continent, while many of its leaders were in his presence at the conference.

“Certain places in Europe are not even recognizable,” he said. “Here in Europe, we’ve seen the fate that the radical left tried to impose upon America.”

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.

The audience largely rewarded Trump’s one-liners with laughter.

“People are doing very well,” the U.S. president said to laughs inside the Congress Hall. They’re very happy with me.”

The overflow room also produced chuckles and giggles as attendees watched the speech on screens.

Distant protesters made their voices, though not their words, heard from the steps outside the Congress Center as Trump addressed the gathering of elites.

Their words were too faint to be discernible, but they clearly expressed angry opposition to Trump.

In the first part of his Davos speech, Trump touted America’s finances and living standards, which he said he achieved against expectations.

“Virtually all of the so-called experts predicted my plans to end this failed model would trigger a global recession and runaway inflation,” he said. “But we have proven them wrong.”

Trump said he wanted to spend the day discussing “how we have achieved this economic miracle” and suggested, as he did from the White House yesterday, that other countries in attendance could learn from his success.

Trump touted economic growth in the U.S., using many of his characteristic superlatives that exaggerate circumstances on the ground.

“The USA is the economic engine on the planet,” Trump said. “You all follow us down, and you follow us up.”

Trump credited his tariff policies, which allies have harshly criticized ahead of his arrival at Davos. The president has also repeated his false claims that he inherited record inflation and has completely eliminated it.

His economic framing is similar to how he reviewed his first year back in power in a lengthy White House press briefing Tuesday before he traveled to Europe.

The president echoed criticisms he had made of Europe in his United Nations address last year and his administration’s latest national security statements.

“I love Europe and I want to see Europe go good, but it’s not heading in the right direction,” he said.

The president opened his remarks by saying it was “great to be back in beautiful Davos Switzerland and to address so many respected business leaders, so many friends, a few enemies.”

His last line drew laughs.

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AP World Economic Forum: https://apnews.com/hub/world-economic-forum