BRUSSELS — European Union leaders are describing U.S. President Donald Trump’s warning that he will impose new tariffs on nations opposing American control of Greenland as “intimidation,” “threats” and “blackmail,” as Europe tries to reduce reliance on American security.
A year into Trump 2.0, the article says European officials believe the trans-Atlantic bond is weakening quickly, with some viewing it as already gone. It also comes amid European efforts to manage an increasingly hostile Russia and the continuing challenge of sustaining support for Ukraine.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned that if Trump tried to annex Greenland, “then everything stops … including our NATO.” The article frames that position as part of a broader hardening of European messaging as Trump returns to the White House.
Maria Martisiute, an analyst at the European Policy Centre, said the situation is “the very early stage of a rather deep political-military crisis,” adding there is a “greater realization … that America has abandoned NATO.” The story links the current diplomatic tone to earlier tensions during Trump’s first term, when Jens Stoltenberg wrote that he feared NATO was about to stop functioning after Trump threatened to walk out of a 2018 summit.
The shift toward European self-reliance, the article says, began to take shape after allies waited for Trump’s plans for Ukraine in January 2025 and then saw U.S. arms supplies and funds “begin to dry up” within weeks. The piece says Europe expected it would have to fill the gap and pay for help it had previously relied on from the United States.
In February at NATO headquarters, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told European allies and Canada that the United States had priorities elsewhere and that they must handle security “in their own backyard.” The story says he also conveyed that Ukraine would not join NATO and that territory seized by Russia would not be returned, and that Europeans could assemble a force to help Ukraine but would not get U.S. help if they went into the country and were attacked.
The article says Trump later blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the invasion. It also reports that days after Hegseth’s remarks, Vice President JD Vance met the leader of a far-right party during election campaigning in Germany, where Vance warned Europe’s main threat was internal, not Russia, and said free speech is “in retreat” across the continent.
After Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s poll win, the article reports Merz said Germany and Europe “must now very quickly make very big efforts, very quickly,” to strengthen defense capabilities “in view of the increasing threat situation.” It adds that European leaders and Zelenskyy went to Washington seeking to keep Trump onside as talks over an earlier U.S. floated proposal evolved, with the story saying a 28-point plan was reworked and talks continued without Putin.
Alongside the diplomacy, the article describes new European defense measures, including the EU’s creation of a multibillion-euro fund to buy arms and ammunition with an emphasis on sourcing from European companies and reducing reliance on U.S. suppliers. It says debt rules were eased for security spending and that money was funneled into Ukraine’s defense industry, and that in December European leaders agreed to pay for most of Ukraine’s military and economic needs for the next two years as Kyiv teeters on the brink of bankruptcy.
The story also points to a U.S. national security strategy that it says paints European allies as weak and criticizes European free speech and migration policy, while offering tacit support to far-right political parties. European Council President Antonio Costa warned the U.S. against interfering in Europe’s affairs, and Merz said the strategy underscores the need for Europe to become “much more independent” from the United States.
Work on Europe’s own security strategy is described as underway, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saying it is meant to respond to “the geopolitical changes in our world and to give an appropriate answer to that.” The article says part of the effort is to make Europe even more autonomous.
As France, Germany, the U.K., Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands sent troops to Greenland last week in a highly symbolic show of resolve, French President Emmanuel Macron said it was important “to stand at the side of a sovereign state to protect its territory.” Speaking to French military chiefs, he added that “Europe is being shaken from some of its certainties,” and said allies that Europe thought were predictable and fearless were instead causing doubt or turning on those they were expected to least.
For now, the eight European countries targeted by Trump’s tariff threat say they “stand firmly behind” principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, and they warned that “Tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral.”