Trump Posts Macron Message Questioning Greenland Push, Offering G7 Talks

The EU is planning for an emergency summit as Trump tied Greenland demands to new tariff threats against European allies.

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with French President Emmanuel Macron in the Oval Office of the White House on Feb. 24, 2025. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump on Jan. 20 posted what he said were private messages from French President Emmanuel Macron, in which Macron questioned Trump’s Greenland push and offered to host a G7 meeting that could include Russia and other parties.

In a screenshot Trump posted on Truth Social early Tuesday, Macron told Trump he did not understand what the U.S. president was “doing on Greenland.” The French president also offered to host a G7 meeting and suggested inviting a range of actors—including Ukrainians, Danes, Syrians, and Russians—to participate on the sidelines of the gathering, scheduled for Jan. 22.

Macron also wrote that he was “totally in line” with Trump on Syria and said the two leaders could do “great things on Iran,” according to the screenshot. He also invited Trump to dinner in Paris.

Crisis Summit Planned

Trump’s post came as European leaders prepared to meet in Brussels on Thursday evening for an emergency summit after Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on goods from several European countries in an effort to pressure them into backing his push for U.S. control of Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.

Trump has said the United States needs Greenland for national security reasons and that a U.S. acquisition of the island is essential to countering potential threats from Russia and China.

Macron has repeatedly called Trump’s tariff threats over Greenland unacceptable.

“No intimidation nor threat will influence us, neither in Ukraine, nor in Greenland, nor anywhere else in the world when we are confronted with such situations,” Macron wrote in a recent post on X.

“Tariff threats are unacceptable and have no place in this context. Europeans will respond to them in a united and coordinated manner if they were to be confirmed.”

Macron, who will leave office in mid-2027, has served as France’s president since 2017. His relationship with Trump has fluctuated since Trump’s first term, with Macron at times seeking rapport and at other times adopting a sharper tone.

Economic Retaliation Speculation

Trump’s post on Truth Social featuring Macron’s remarks appeared hours after the U.S. president said he would impose a 200 percent tariff on French wines and champagnes, a move he said would push Macron to join Trump’s “Board of Peace” initiative aimed at resolving global conflicts.

In a separate Truth Social post on Jan. 20, Trump said he had a “very good telephone call” with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and that he had agreed to a meeting of “the various parties” in Davos, Switzerland.

“As I expressed to everyone, very plainly, Greenland is imperative for National and World Security,” Trump wrote. “There can be no going back — On that, everyone agrees!”

Trump also posted two digitally generated images on Monday depicting Greenland as U.S. territory, including one showing him planting an American flag and another showing European leaders in the Oval Office with a map featuring the United States, Canada, and Greenland overlaid with U.S. flag imagery.

Macron is due to arrive at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos on Tuesday morning and return to Paris the same evening, according to aides at the Élysée Palace. The aides said there were no plans for Macron to extend his stay to Wednesday, when Trump is expected to arrive in the Swiss town.

The Greenland dispute has fueled market jitters and revived talk of retaliatory economic measures from European capitals, including speculation about whether European governments could use their holdings of U.S. government debt as leverage.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dismissed that idea on Monday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, calling the notion that Europe could dump Treasurys in response to Trump’s Greenland push “a completely false narrative.”

Bessent said that the U.S. Treasury market remains the world’s most liquid and foundational financial market and said he expected European governments to remain invested.

He also urged leaders to keep tensions from spiraling and to avoid worst-case assumptions as negotiations unfold.

“What I am urging everyone here to do is sit back, take a deep breath, and let things play out,” he said. “The worst thing countries can do is escalate against the United States.”

Reuters contributed to this report.