Europe is pushing back publicly against U.S. President Donald Trump over Greenland, but the tone appears softer in private communications, according to an Associated Press report based on messages Trump published.
The AP said Trump posted a text message he received from French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday. Macron’s office confirmed the message was genuine, the AP reported.
In the message, Macron began with “My friend,” and the AP said his wording was more deferential than France and some European partner nations have used publicly as they criticize Trump’s push involving Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory.
Before broaching the Greenland dispute, Macron’s message first discussed other issues where he and Trump appear aligned, the AP said. In English, Macron wrote, “We are totally in line on Syria. We can do great things on Iran,” before adding Greenland-related language.
The AP reported that the message’s Greenland mention came in two consecutive phrases: “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland,” followed immediately by “Let us try to build great things.” The AP said Greenland was the only reference Macron made in the two sections of message Trump published, and it was not immediately clear from Trump’s post when he received the note.
The AP said Trump’s willingness to place verbatim private messages in the public domain departs from a diplomatic tradition in which world leaders typically keep such communications private to present one face publicly and another behind the scenes.
The report also described a previous example: the AP said Trump sent a text message to Norway’s prime minister that later became public after the Norwegian government released it and the White House confirmed its authenticity. In that message, Trump linked his stance on Greenland to Norway’s decision last year not to award him the Nobel Peace Prize, quoting: “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace,” and concluding, “The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”
On Tuesday, the AP said, Trump also published what it described as a flattering message from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. NATO confirmed the message as authentic, and the AP quoted Rutte writing, “I am committed to finding a way forward on Greenland. Can’t wait to see you. Yours, Mark.” The AP said Rutte has declined to speak publicly about Greenland despite growing concern over Trump’s threats to “acquire” the island and Denmark’s warnings about NATO implications.
The AP reported that, when Rutte was pressed on those warnings, he said, “I can never comment on that. That’s impossible in public.”
The AP said Macron has previously portrayed himself as able to reach Trump directly, describing how he made a televised show of calling the president from a street in New York last September. In that episode, the AP quoted Macron telling Trump: “Guess what? I’m waiting in the street because everything is frozen for you!”
When asked by a journalist about the publication of the Macron message, the AP said Macron responded that he had “no particular reaction.” The report also quoted Macron saying, “I take responsibility for everything that I do. It’s my habit to be coherent between what I say on the outside and what I do in a private manner. That’s all.”
In the same message, the AP said Macron told Trump he would be willing to host representatives from both Ukraine and Russia in Paris later this week, and suggested Russians could be included “in the margins.” The AP reported that Macron also said the gathering could include “the danish, the syrians” and the G7 nations, and wrote: “let us have a dinner together in Paris together on thursday before you go back to the us,” signing off simply with “Emmanuel.”
Despite the softer tone the AP described in Macron’s private message, the report said relations have remained strained at moments in Trump’s dealings with European leaders, including when Trump threatened punitive tariffs after being told Macron would not join a new Board of Peace Trump has described for Gaza diplomacy. The AP quoted Trump telling reporters, “Well, nobody wants him because he’s going to be out of office very soon,” and later saying, “I’ll put a 200% tariff on his wines and champagnes and he’ll join.”
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