(A)Political - January 17th

Good morning everyone,

It’s been a busy week in D.C. Let’s get into it!

President Trump has now stated he may tariff countries who don’t back his bid for control of Greenland. Trump has announced a plan that would force big tech companies to foot the bill for rising energy costs while effectively capping costs for residential electric consumers. A new healthcare plan to replace Obamacare has been unveiled by Trump.

• Trump: Tariffs May Come To Countries Who Don’t Back Our Bid For Greenland

• Trump Seeks ‘Emergency Intervention’ To Cut Consumer Electric Costs, Pass Rising Costs To Tech Companies

• New Healthcare Plan Unveiled By Trump

Trump: Tariffs May Come To Countries Who Don’t Back Our Bid For Greenland

_{By: Atlas}

President Donald Trump on Friday warned he may impose tariffs on countries that do not support his plan for the United States to take control of Greenland, marking his firmest economic pressure tactic yet in the ongoing dispute over the Danish territory.

"I may put a tariff on countries if they don't go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that," Trump said during an unrelated White House event about rural healthcare.

The president compared the potential Greenland tariffs to those he had threatened on France and Germany over pharmaceutical pricing as part of a "most favored nation" drug price deal. He did not specify which countries would be hit with the levies, what authority he would invoke to implement them, or how steep the proposed tariffs would be.

Trump has repeatedly insisted that the US should control Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and said earlier this week that anything less than the Arctic island being in US hands would be "unacceptable."

Congressional delegation seeks to 'lower the temperature'

Trump's tariff threat came as a bipartisan delegation of 11 US lawmakers visited Copenhagen to meet with Danish and Greenlandic leaders, seeking to ease tensions sparked by the president's territorial ambitions.

The delegation, led by Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, met with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart Jens-Frederik Nielsen, as well as Denmark's foreign and defense ministers, parliamentarians and business leaders.

Coons thanked the group's hosts for "225 years of being a good and trusted ally and partner" and said the purpose of the visit was to "listen respectfully to our friends, our trusted allies and partners here in Denmark and from Greenland."

Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said after meeting lawmakers that the visit reflected a strong relationship over decades and "it is one that we need to nurture."

"Greenland needs to be viewed as our ally, not as an asset, and I think that's what you're hearing with this delegation," Murkowski told reporters.

She emphasized that "the vast majority" of Americans do not agree that it is a good idea for the US to acquire Greenland, citing polling showing roughly 75 percent oppose the idea.

Murkowski, along with Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, has introduced bipartisan legislation that would prohibit the use of US Defense or State department funds to annex or take control of Greenland or the sovereign territory of any NATO member state without that ally's consent or authorization from the North Atlantic Council.

Denmark, Greenland reject US position

The foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Wednesday. That encounter did not resolve the fundamental differences between the parties.

"We didn't manage to change the American position. It's clear that the president has this wish of conquering Greenland," Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said after the roughly 80-minute discussion.

The two sides agreed to set up a working group to continue talks every two to three weeks, though Denmark and the White House offered sharply diverging public views on its purpose.

Greenland's prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said Tuesday that "if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU."

Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic politician and member of the Danish parliament who took part in Friday's meetings with US lawmakers, pushed back on Trump's claims about foreign threats to Greenland.

"We have heard so many lies, to be honest and so much exaggeration on the threats towards Greenland," she said. "And mostly, I would say the threats that we're seeing right now is from the US side."

European allies rally to Denmark's support

European nations have shown their backing for Denmark and Greenland in response to Trump's escalating threats, including by deploying small numbers of military personnel to the strategic territory.

Britain, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden have announced the deployment of military personnel to prepare for future exercises in the Arctic. French President Emmanuel Macron sent troops to Greenland as part of "Operation Arctic Endurance" to underscore support for Danish ownership.

French armed forces minister Alice Rufo said the European military presence was a sign that the continent was prepared to defend sovereignty.

Denmark has warned that military action by the US would spell the end of NATO, the trans-Atlantic defense alliance where the United States is the most influential partner. NATO operates on the principle that an attack on one member would be met with force by all other members, and has never faced a scenario where one member would use force against another.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the European troops did not impact Trump's "goal of the acquisition of Greenland at all."

Trump questions NATO over Greenland

The president on Friday also appeared to question his country's core role in NATO over the Greenland issue.

"We're going to see. NATO has been dealing with us on Greenland," Trump told reporters when asked if he would pull the United States out of NATO if the alliance doesn't help it acquire Greenland.

"We need Greenland for national security very badly. If we don't have it, we have a hole in national security, especially when it comes to what we're doing in terms of the Golden Dome," he added, referring to his planned missile defense system.

Trump has sought to justify his calls for a US takeover by repeatedly claiming that China and Russia have their own designs on Greenland, which holds vast untapped reserves of critical minerals. The White House has not ruled out taking the territory by force.

The head of Denmark's Joint Arctic Command in Greenland said Friday he is focused on countering potential Russian activity, not defending against US military threats.

"My focus is not toward the US, not at all. My focus is on Russia," Major-General Soren Andersen said on board a Danish warship in Nuuk, Greenland's capital.

Andersen dismissed suggestions of conflict between NATO allies as "hypothetical."

"I don't see a NATO ally attacking another NATO ally," he said.

Trump's special envoy to Greenland, Jeff Landry, told Fox News on Friday that he plans to visit the Danish territory in March and believes a deal can be made.

"I do believe that there's a deal that should and will be made once this plays out," Landry said. "The president is serious. I think he's laid the markers down."

The US already has more than 100 military personnel permanently stationed at its Pituffik base, a missile-monitoring station on Greenland's northwestern tip that has been operated by the US since World War Two. Under existing agreements with Denmark, the US has the power to bring as many troops as it wants to Greenland.

Large demonstrations are planned across Denmark and Greenland on Saturday to protest against Trump's plan.

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