The BBC calls Trump’s announcement of 10%+15% tariffs on eight European countries(Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and France) sending military personnel to Greenlandto force them not to oppose the country’s annexation plans.

“Over the past year we have heard some unusual and unexpected economic threats from President Trump, but I think it’s safe to say that this one surpasses them all and takes us into surreal and downright dangerous territory,” BBC calling it a form of economic warfare imposed by the White House on its closest allies as on the one hand the threat is for an incredibly short period of time and on the other hand it could be an excuse to break up NATO and the alliance of Western countries.

“This is not so much because of the amount of tariffs but because of its logic – the seizure of land by an ally and the public attempt to coerce allies. How would the world react if China or Russia had sent such a threat to some of their allies?” continues BBCrecalling that on Wednesday, Trump will meet the leaders of the allied countries whose economies he just threatened at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The EU-US trade deal is up in the air

For its part, the Guardian notes that Trump’s threats “represent a devastating blow to the agreements he struck with these countries last summer”, believing them to be an attempt to divide Europe and quell its disagreement over Greenland.

Typical of the reaction of the European People’s Party and the European Socialists on Saturday night, they said that the US-EU tariff deal cannot be approved under the current circumstances.

Trump’s threat also ignores the fact that individual member states do not have individual trade agreements with the US. All EU international trade agreements are conducted centrally through Brussels, as was the case last summer. As the UK newspaper reminds us, while the Washington-Brussels trade deal has entered into force in the US, the 0% tariffs promised to the US have yet to be legally ratified in the EU.

“The EPP is in favour of the EU-US trade deal, but given Donald Trump’s threats on Greenland, approval is not possible at this stage,” said Manfred Weber, leader of the EPP. “The 0% tariffs on US products must be suspended.”

Kathleen van Brempt, S&D vice-president for trade, said “there can be no trade deal under the current circumstances”. In the same vein, the liberal parliamentary group Renew said it would join efforts to suspend the ratification of the trade deal with the US.

According to the Guardian,” the latest threat will be seen as yet another attempt by a man – sometimes an ally, sometimes an adversary – desperate to win a dispute using one of his favourite weapons. It will also be seen as an attempt to divide Europe and suppress its opposition to his ambition to take over Greenland. Saturday’s threat underscores the volatile nature of any deal with Trump, but it also appears to have raised the temperature in the EU, which many see as weak against the multiple scare tactics of the US.

Mikkel Runge Olesen, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said Trump’s latest threat was a sign that Europe’s opposition to his threat to take over Greenland was working. “I think it’s a reaction to Europe sending troops to Greenland, because if you look at the tariffs, they correspond to the countries that sent troops,” he told Sky News, adding: “We will never see US troops in Greenland, it’s a negotiating tactic.”