President Donald Trump appears on a large screen as he addresses the World Economic Forum on January 21, 2026, in Davos, Switzerland. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The great Greenland war of 2026 appears to be on hold for the moment.

This week’s World Economic Forum in Davos has been largely overshadowed by President Donald Trump’s demand that the US take control of the Danish territory of Greenland, which set off a rapidly escalating crisis. Heading into the conference, Trump threatened to impose 10 percent tariffs on “any and all goods” from eight European countries, including Denmark, unless a deal was reached to sell Greenland to the US, and he pointedly refused to rule out using military force to take the island — effectively threatening to invade a NATO ally. “There can be no going back,” Trump posted on social media on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, however, Trump seemingly went back. In an otherwise combative, Europe-bashing speech at Davos on Wednesday, he seemed to retreat from the threat of using military force, though he didn’t rule it out entirely. (In any event, as the New York Times reported on Tuesday, the Pentagon has not actually been tasked with drawing up Greenland invasion plans.) Then, later in the day, after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump tweeted that he would not be imposing the tariffs after all, saying, vaguely, that the “framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland” had been reached and that there would be ongoing talks about the territory and its role in the proposed Golden Dome missile defense system. Some reports suggest the US may be given sovereignty over small areas of Greenland where it could build military bases.

This appears to be exactly the sort of face-saving deal European leaders had been hoping for. Trump can claim a win, though it’s not quite clear what he won, since Denmark was open to talks about the US military presence in Greenland from the start, without US sovereignty. The US operates hundreds of military bases in more than 70 countries without deals like this. But it appears that the vast majority of Greenland and its inhabitants will remain under Danish sovereignty for the time being.

But while everyone involved might be breathing easier in the short-term, the rifts exposed by this episode could permanently change the relationship between the US and its allies. Europe, which previously had looked to accommodate Trump, defused the crisis by confronting the president with tougher talk and more concrete threats this time, and European diplomats are already citing the agreement as the result of their more assertive posture. Looking ahead, some leaders are now talking about a world in which the US not only surrenders its leadership position in the free world,........

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