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President Donald Trump has turned up the heat on European leaders as he looks to ink a deal for the U.S. to acquire Greenland, including a specific focus on French President Emmanuel Macron in recent weeks.
Trump was in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum Wednesday and Thursday, delivering a speech and holding bilateral meetings with foreign leaders at the annual conference that attracts foreign dignitaries, business leaders and celebrities to discuss the world’s economy.
The president’s visit to Switzerland came as he threatened to impose tariffs on eight European nations if no deal on the U.S. acquiring Greenland was achieved by Feb. 1. Initial tariffs would have begun at 10% on goods from Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and was set to increase to 25% by June 1 if there is no deal by that point.
Trump has put many of Europe’s top leaders on notice as he looks to secure the deal, but he has taken an outsized focus on Macron.
TRUMP SAYS FRAMEWORK OF ‘FUTURE DEAL’ ON GREENLAND REACHED AFTER NATO TALKS AS TARIFFS PUT ON HOLD
President Donald Trump delivers a special address during the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 21, 2026. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)
The French president has meanwhile vowed from Davos that France will stand up to “bullies” and added that U.S. threats to impose tariffs in a bid to acquire Greenland was “fundamentally unacceptable.”
Trump announced Wednesday that he would not impose tariffs that were set to take effect, citing a “framework of a future deal” with NATO involving Greenland and the Arctic region.
“Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron arrives to meet with President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Monday, Aug. 18, 2025, at the South Portico of the White House in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/The Associated Press )
The French president was pulled into more U.S. headlines in early January, after the U.S. military successfully captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, which opened the floodgates to heightened discussions of the U.S. making moves to acquire Greenland from Denmark.
Days after Maduro’s capture and as talks of Greenland mounted, Trump joined House Republican lawmakers Jan. 6, when he imitated Macron’s accent while recounting how Trump pressured Macron to raise drug prices in France in 2025 as the U.S. looked to bring parity to its sky-high prescription costs compared to other nations.
“He’s a nice guy,” Trump said before launching into an accent and recounting their conversation in a viral moment.
Trump again put on a French accent to recount the same conversation he held with Macron Jan. 16 during a rural healthcare roundtable at the White House.
“I said, ‘Emmanuel,’” Trump recounted.
“‘Yes, Donald, Donald. Thank you so much for calling,” he continued, using an accent to indicate Macron was speaking.
“I said, ‘You’re not going to like this call,'” Trump continued.
TRUMP’S ‘SMALL ASK’ FOR GREENLAND WOULD BE THE REAL ESTATE DEAL OF A LIFETIME
Trump recounted the story to show his long history as the deal-maker-in-chief and pressure Macron to raise France’s ultra-low government-set prices that Trump said let pharmaceutical companies shift costs onto Americans.
France was listed among eight countries facing additional tariffs if no Greenland deal is made on Saturday. Trump singled out France early Tuesday morning when he shared a text message Macron sent Trump, which included the French leader saying, “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland.”
“My friend, We are totally in line on Syria(.) We can do great things on Iran(.)” Macron wrote, according to the screenshot. “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland(.) Let us try to build great things: 1) i (sic) can set up a g7 meeting after Davos in Paris on thursday afternoon. I can invite the ukrainians, the danish, the syrians and the russians in the margins 2) let us have a dinner together in Paris together on thursday before you go back to the us.”
The president also shared a text from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on social media, who told Trump that he was “committed to finding a way forward on Greenland.”
“It just made my point,” Trump said in an interview with The New York Post of why he shared the messages. “They’re saying, ‘Oh gee, let’s have dinner, let’s do this, let’s do that.’ It just made my point.”
Simultaneous to talks on potentially acquiring Greenland, Trump extended invitations to a swath of foreign leaders to join the Gaza Board of Peace, which is styled as a new oversight body tied to the next phase of the Gaza peace plan that the Trump administration ironed out in 2025.
President Donald Trump broke out a French accent while recounting a phone call with French President Macron. (Yoan Valat/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Macron turned the invitation down, with his office saying the Board of Peace proposal “goes beyond the framework of Gaza and raises serious questions, in particular with respect to the principles and structure of the United Nations, which cannot be called into question,” according to Politico.
Trump, again, targeted Macron with fiery comments when asked about the declined invitation.
“Oh, did he say that? Well nobody wants him because he’s gonna be out of office very soon. That’s alright. What I’ll do is if they feel like hostile, I’ll put a 200% tariff on his wines and champagnes and he’ll join. But he doesn’t have to join. If he said that, you’re probably giving it to me a little bit differently, but if he actually did say that– but as you know, he’s gonna be out of office in a few months,” Trump said.
Macron’s term ends in 2027, and he is unable to run for a third consecutive term under French law.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on the president’s rhetoric focused on Macron and France’s role in a potential Greenland deal but did not immediately receive a reply.
Trump underscored from his speech in Davos Wednesday that “no nation or group of nations is in any position to be able to secure Greenland other than the United States.” Trump is looking to acquire the island from Denmark for national security purposes, citing its strategic location between the United States, Russia and China.
“All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland,” Trump said Wednesday from his speech at the World Economic Forum. “Where we’ve already had it as a trustee, but respectfully returned it back to Denmark not long ago after we defeated the Germans, the Japanese, the Italians and others in World War II, we gave it back to them.”
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 20, 2026. (Harun Ozalp/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Trump also took a shot at Macron during his address to the body, remarking on the French president wearing sunglasses during public events before again recounting his prior discussion with him regarding drug prices.
TRUMP TELLS DAVOS US ALONE CAN SECURE GREENLAND, INSISTS HE WON’T ‘USE FORCE’
“I watched him yesterday with those beautiful sunglasses,” Trump said to the crowd. “What the hell happened?”
Macron spoke before the World Economic Forum Tuesday while wearing aviator sunglasses, sparking mockery and memes online. Macron’s office said he wore sunglasses due to a burst blood vessel and need to protect his eyes.
“Competition from the United States of America through trade agreements that undermine our export interests, demand maximum concessions, and openly aim to weaken and subordinate Europe,” Macron said from Davos in a hit on Trump. “Combined with an endless accumulation of new tariffs that are fundamentally unacceptable – even more so when they are used as leverage against territorial sovereignty.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to Élysée Palace for comment from Macron’s office regarding Trump’s remarks but did not immediately receive a reply.
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