Trump backed down on Greenland as economic pressure mounted, analyst says

Media analyst Doctor Nolan Higdon said on Wednesday (January 21) U.S. President Donald Trump’s retreat from threats of force as an option for acquiring Greenland reflected economic pressure rather than a settled policy shift.

"Once it started to hurt the economy, that’s really when you saw Trump back down and look for an exit strategy,” Higdon, an author and university lecturer of history and media studies, said, describing Trump’s subsequent talk of a future Greenland deal as an effort to calm markets while avoiding the appearance of capitulation.

In remarks on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump ruled out using military force after weeks of refusing to do so, and in a social media post said he would no longer be imposing tariffs that he had threatened to put into effect on February 1.

The episode underscored how Trump's long-running fascination with acquiring Greenland keeps crashing into diplomatic and political reality, emblematic of a second term defined by abrupt policy shifts and rapid reversals. Again and again, the Republican president has changed course on tariffs and other issues under economic, political or market pressure.

-Bernat Parera/Reuters