Reactions were rolling in Wednesday after President Donald Trump appeared to change direction on his demands for the United States to own Greenland.
Trump had threatened to impose tariffs on European nations on Feb. 1 and told reporters after his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that a deal was apparently in the works with NATO, appearing to waffle on whether it would include ownership of the Arctic island and Danish territory.
CNN's Kristen Holmes described the reactions among the Trump administration and how the reality of Trump's attacks on European leaders had shifted developments around the Greenland talks.
"We know Republicans were looking for an off-ramp. And certainly this would seem like an off-ramp," Holmes said. "There are absolutely no details in this, but it does turn down the heat. We had this idea of looming tariffs on countries. Any country that opposed President Trump and the U.S. takeover of Greenland, things were not going well. It was becoming increasingly tense with our European allies. And everybody at one point was looking for some kind of off-ramp — our European allies, Republicans — some administration officials, how could they get out of this?"
Trump had reportedly raised major concerns among the world leaders.
"Because President Trump obviously had pushed this all the way to the brink," she added. "Now, they clearly had toned down the rhetoric a little bit. President Trump was still scathing in his speech earlier today. But we know he said he wasn't going to use military force. Then he said that he supported our European allies. Again, all of this was sprinkled in between attacks on European leaders and scathing remarks towards our allies and NATO as a whole. But those were different points than we had heard him make before. It was a clear softening of rhetoric when it comes to what he was going to do with Greenland."
Criticism mounted online after Trump's apparent reversal on his demands.
"There were no other options left with Greenland than either backing down or going to war. And he never had the guts to go to war. So he backs down and pretends he got a great deal so his followers can shriek about how this is what they voted for," author and conspiracy theory expert Mike Rothschild wrote on X.
"They're just running out the clock on him. Hilarious," trader Gaeten Dugas wrote on X.
"Unprecedented levels of vagueness," user Ivy AC wrote on X.
"Key words.. 'for now,'" attorney and former judge Tracey Gallagher wrote on X.
"The is not a new deal - this is Trump surrendering. For now. They have always said that the US & NATO is free to do what it wants in Greenland from a military perspective. Trump said that wasn’t good enough because he needs the US to 'own' it. So this is simply Trump backing down," Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MediasTouch, wrote on X.