Donald Trump last night dropped his threat to invade Greenland following a furious bust–up with Britain and other Nato allies.

Speaking after talks with Nato chief Mark Rutte, the US President said he had agreed 'the framework of a future deal' regarding the control of the Arctic island, which he claims is vital for American security.

Mr Trump added that he was suspending plans to slap tariffs on Britain and other countries resisting his Greenland grab.

Markets in the US rallied on his announcement, having climbed on his earlier proclamation that he would not use force to take the 'big, beautiful piece of ice'.

And the Daily Mail can reveal he is mulling making the inhabitants of Greenland (population 57,000) an offer of $1million each - £750,000 or €850,000 - if they vote to join the United States.

Last night, Nato military officers were discussing an arrangement where Denmark would cede 'small pockets of Greenlandic' territory to the US, where it could build military bases. 

Senior officials compared the proposal to UK military bases in Cyprus – which are treated as sovereign British territories – according to The New York Times.

Mr Trump told reporters it was 'the ultimate long–term deal'. When asked how long, he replied: 'Infinite. There is no time limit. It's a deal that's forever.' 

He had earlier written on his Truth Social social media platform: 'Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of Nato, Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region.

'This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all Nato Nations.'

Danish foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said the US owning Greenland is a 'red line' that will not happen.

He said Copenhagen would keep ownership of Greenland, despite Mr Trump's earlier demand for negotiations on an 'acquisition'. 'It's not going to happen that the US will own Greenland. That's a red line,' Mr Rasmussen told national broadcaster DR.

Mr Trump's apparent climbdown on the imposition of tariffs over the Greenland dispute will fuel critics who coined the term TACO, short for 'Trump Always Chickens Out'.

The row that has played out over the last fortnight has raised serious questions about the survival of Nato and yesterday plunged Britain's 'special relationship' with the US into crisis. During a rambling address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Trump sought to often belittle his allies.

In a reference to America's role in the Second World War, he told his mainly European audience: 'Without us, you'd all be speaking German, with maybe a little Japanese.'

France, Canada and even neutral Switzerland, the host of the summit, came in for some tough shots.

But Britain was the subject of several barrages throughout the day, with the White House also stepping up criticism of Labour's controversial £30billion giveaway of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested the issue could lead to Keir Starmer's trade deal with the US being unpicked, saying the UK was 'letting us down' and warned it could cause 'glitches' in economic relations. And Mr Trump savaged Labour's Net Zero approach, saying the Government's windfall tax on North Sea oil was driving 'catastrophically high' energy prices in the UK.

The President later said that 'bad things' would happen to Britain and Europe unless they clamped down on immigration and halted the drive for green energy. 'They have to change their ways,' he said. 

'Between immigration and energy, if they don't change, bad things will happen.'

Sir Keir, who has bent over backwards to appease Mr Trump during his first year in office, yesterday hit back for the first time, saying he would not 'yield' to pressure from the White House to drop his support for Greenland.

In the Commons, the Prime Minister said: 'I will not yield, Britain will not yield on our principles and values about the future of Greenland under threats of tariffs, and that is my clear position.'

In a further rupture in relations, No10 indicated that the PM may reject an offer to join Mr Trump's 'Board of Peace' unless an invitation to Vladimir Putin is withdrawn.

Kemi Badenoch backed Sir Keir's stance on Greenland, but said he should now drop the plan to surrender the Chagos Islands, home to a vital UK–US base on Diego Garcia.

Downing Street has insisted that the deal – which involves the UK paying up to £35billion for a 99–year lease on Diego Garcia, will still go ahead.

But the treaty with Mauritius has yet to be ratified by Parliament and could be derailed if Mr Trump steps up his opposition. In a show of solidarity with Denmark, Sir Keir will today hold crisis talks in London with Danish PM Mette Frederiksen.

During his stream–of–consciousness address to world leaders at Davos, Mr Trump repeatedly appeared to confuse Greenland and Iceland.

He insisted that only the US could protect Greenland from potential threats. 'All I'm asking for is a piece of ice – cold and very poorly located,' he said. 'It's a very small ask considering what we've given them (Nato) for decades.'

Ignoring the allied response after the 9/11 attacks, Mr Trump claimed that America 'never got anything from Nato', despite the deaths of British and Danish troops fighting to liberate Afghanistan from the Taliban.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, due to speak in Davos today, rejected the claim, saying Britain had 'more than done our bit' for Nato.

Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator, welcomed the decision to take force off the table regarding Greenland. But he added that Mr Trump had made a 'damn good argument' as to why the US should have it, and urged Nato to find a way to help Trump 'acquire title'.

How Trump gave the world's leaders a 'history lesson on Greenland' while demanding to buy the island – and warning Nato allies not to stand in his way 

By Andy Jehring, Chief Foreign Correspondent 

Donald Trump arrived in Davos yesterday with a demand to buy Greenland – and warned America's Nato allies not to stand in his way.

In an extraordinary speech lasting more than an hour, the President ruled out taking the Arctic island by force, instead using his spot on the main stage to call for 'immediate negotiations' for the 'acquisition'.

Drawing heavily on the Second World War, he said his country had saved the 'big beautiful piece of ice' from Germany before the 'stupid' US 'gave it back' to Denmark, who should be 'grateful'.

Despite mistakenly calling the semi–autonomous territory 'Iceland' four times, Mr Trump said he wanted all 'rights, title and ownership' of the island. He said allies had a 'chance to say yes and we will be very appreciative', but warned: 'You say no, and we will remember.'

From his speech, he headed off to a meeting with Nato boss Mark Rutte, from which he emerged last night claiming to have struck a deal, which The New York Times claimed would involve Denmark ceding small pockets of Greenlandic territory to the US, where it could build military bases.

For 72 minutes in the afternoon, straight off his delayed flight from Washington and seemingly weary from it, Mr Trump had the Swiss business forum captivated, deviating wildly and going off script as his speeches often do.

He mocked the aviator sunglasses worn by French President Emmanuel Macron the previous day to cover an eye infection. He hit out at 'Somali bandits', labelled Europe 'unrecognisable', and suggested he had wanted to bring Second World War battleships out of retirement.

But though it took some 20 minutes for him to get to the issue, it was the subject of Greenland that most exercised the leader of the free world.

Warming up, he warned America wants 'strong allies, not seriously weakened ones' and singled out Britain for not using North Sea oil.

Europe must 'get out of the culture they've created over the last ten years', he said. If they want a 'strong and united West', they must get a grip of 'energy, trade, immigration and economic growth'.

Then, teasing the 2,300 delegates packed into Davos' congress hall, he turned his sights on the subject world leaders had been bracing for. 'No issue makes the situation more clear than what's going on with Greenland,' he said. 

Pausing for effect, he added: 'I was going to leave it out of the speech, but thought I was going to be reviewed very negatively.'

While Mr Trump said he has 'tremendous respect for both the people of Greenland and the people of Denmark', he insisted 'every Nato ally has an obligation to be able to defend their own territory'.

'The fact is no nation or group of nations is in any position to be able to secure Greenland other than the United States. We're a great power, much greater than people even understand,' he said.

To justify his claim, Mr Trump reminded Denmark that in the Second World War the country 'fell to Germany after just six hours of fighting'. The US was 'compelled' to send forces to hold Greenland but 'after the war... we gave Greenland back to Denmark'.

'How stupid were we to do that?' he asked, given the island is 'right smack in the middle' of the US, China and Russia.

Of the Danes, he demurred: 'How ungrateful are they now.'

Mr Trump described Greenland, home to nearly 60,000 people, as a 'vast, almost entirely uninhabited and undeveloped territory'. He dismissed arguments that he only wants the island for its valuable rare earth metals, saying it is for 'international security' – despite America being allowed to deploy its own troops to the territory.

Only the US can make it 'safe for Europe and good for us', he said. 'That's the reason I'm seeking immediate negotiations to once again discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States.'

The only reprieve during his blistering attack on allies came when, for the first time, he ruled out seizing the territory by force.

Having bemoaned Nato, saying, 'We give so much and we get so little in return,' Mr Trump said of Greenland: 'We probably won't get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won't do that, OK... I don't have to use force. I don't want to use force. I won't use force.'

Even his ally Nigel Farage last night said that, while the world would be a 'better, more secure place' if the US took Greenland, 'you must respect the rights and views of the Greenlanders'.

Mr Trump also apparently forgot that the US is the only country to have invoked Article 5 of the Nato agreement (an attack on one is an attack on all) after 9/11, and that thousands of servicemen and women died in Afghanistan fighting America's war as 35 member states answered the call.

'The problem with Nato is that we'll be there for them 100 per cent, but I'm not sure that they'd be there for us,' he said.

Then, despite having brought world relations to the brink over Greenland, he proceeded to call it Iceland four times.

'They're not there for us on Iceland, that I can tell you,' he said. 'I mean, our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland. So Iceland's already cost us a lot of money.'

In another moment, he said of Nato: 'Until the last few days when I told them about Iceland, they loved me.'

The demand for the 'piece of ice' is 'a very small ask compared to what we have given them for many, many decades', he said.

This would be 'just as we have acquired many other territories throughout our history' as 'many of the European nations have'. He also said he would be meeting Volodymyr Zelensky and wants a deal to end the 'bloodbath' in Ukraine.

But he was scathing of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who had earlier given a speech railing against a return to 'great powers' using economic coercion. 'Canada gets a lot of freebies from us,' said Mr Trump. 'I watched your prime minister yesterday. He wasn't so grateful.

'They should be grateful to us. Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, next time you make your statements.'

He also mocked Mr Macron, who on Tuesday had given a tough speech against 'bullies' while wearing Top Gun–style aviator sunglasses because of an eye condition.

'I watched him yesterday with those beautiful sunglasses,' Mr Trump said. 'What the hell happened?'

He then impersonated the French president's accent, saying, 'I watched him sort of be tough' – before relaying how he had forced Mr Macron and other European leaders back down over pharmaceutical prices, a clear warning over Greenland. 'I actually like him,' he said of Mr Macron. 'Hard to believe, isn't it?'

He then attacked Switzerland in a similar vein, saying 'they make beautiful watches' but were paying 'nothing' when they exported Rolexes to the US.

He warned that he could put tariffs back up to 39 per cent on Swiss firms but 'I don't want to hurt people'.

In a bizarre conclusion to his speech, Mr Trump said he had wanted to renovate America's 'great big gorgeous' battleships from the Second World War until he was told modern ones are '100 times more powerful'.

Turning to the home front, the President said he was 'cutting crime down to nothing' in the US before turning his ire on 'Somalian bandits' – another favourite refrain.

Referring to alleged fraud by the Somali diaspora in Minnesota, the state presided over by Democratic vice–president nominee Tim Walz, he said: 'How did they go into Minnesota and steal all that money?

'You know, they're pirates. They're good pirates, but we shoot them out of the water just like we shoot the drug boats out.'

So just how many of the President's outlandish assertions were true? 

By Tom Leonard in New York

For over an hour yesterday, Donald Trump delivered a speech to leaders at Davos that was at times focused and at others resembled incoherent rambling.

The combative American President covered considerable ground – and made a number of outlandish claims. So what was true and what wasn't?

'After the war we gave Greenland back. How stupid were we to do that? But we did it'

Technically, the US couldn't 'hand back' Greenland to Denmark after the Second World War because it never took ownership or sovereignty over the island to begin with.

Greenland (which Trump repeatedly confused with Iceland throughout his speech) has remained under Danish sovereignty since the early 18th century.

Trump is partially correct, however, in alluding to the period after Nazi Germany occupied mainland Denmark in 1940. The US assumed responsibility for Greenland's defence in a 1941 agreement with the Danish ambassador to the US. (At the time, the US was officially neutral in the war and had rejected a British plan to occupy the island.)

Although it established numerous military bases there, making Greenland a de facto US protectorate for defence purposes, the land remained Danish territory.

VERDICT: FALSE

'I settled eight other wars'

The man who is still smarting that he didn't get the Nobel Peace Prize is exaggerating – although time may tell by how much. Trump was involved with three ceasefires in conflicts between India and Pakistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan and Israel and Iran.

He also played a key role in achieving Israel's ceasefire with Hamas, even if peace there is hardly 'settled'. Ditto a long–standing dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over a dam on the Nile, and a confrontation between Kosovo and Serbia.

Other wars that he's claimed to have ended – between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, and between Thailand and Cambodia – have since erupted into renewed violence.

Some, like one between Albania and Azerbaijan, never began in the first place.

VERDICT: PARTIALLY TRUE

'In 2025, for the first time in 50 years, the United States had reverse migration'

Although some liberal economists insist this is nothing to boast about, Trump's claim stems from a report this month by a Washington think–tank the Brookings Institution.

It found the number of people emigrating to the US compared to the number leaving the country was close to zero or even negative last year.

The last time the US experienced this phenomenon, also known as 'negative net migration', was even longer ago than Trump claimed – during the Great Depression between 1931 and 1940, according to fact–checkers at the Poynter Institute.

VERDICT: TRUE

'China makes almost all of the windmills and yet I haven't been able to find any wind farms in China'.

Trump has often repeated this claim, insisting this month that China makes turbines to 'sell them to suckers like Europe, and suckers like the United States' but don't use them themselves.

In fact, while China still relies heavily on coal, it has about 44 per cent of the world's wind farm capacity, the highest compared with any other country and nearly three times that of the US.

VERDICT: FALSE

'Grocery prices, energy prices, air fares, mortgage rates, rent and car payments are all coming down, and they're coming down fast'

The cost of living – not foreign affairs – is the key battleground in American politics.

Mortgage rates have decreased from around 7 per cent when Trump took office in January 2025 to a little over 6 per cent now. Air fares and car prices have also fallen.

Food and energy prices have risen, however. Eggs, milk and bread may be cheaper – but meat, fruit and vegetables are not.

Consequently, grocery prices have roughly increased at the same rate as they did during the last year of the inflation–prone Biden administration.

Energy is also significantly more expensive – nearly 7 per cent higher than a year ago – despite petrol prices having gone down.

VERDICT: PARTLY TRUE

'We've never gotten anything from Nato'

Hardly so. Ironically, the only time the alliance has invoked Article 5, stating that an attack on one member is an affront on all, was after the terror attacks on the US on September 11, 2001.

Nato troops – including a contingent from now–scorned Denmark – fought and died alongside US forces in Afghanistan.

After President Barack Obama supported a 'surge' in the conflict, the number of non–US Nato troops doubled to more than 132,000 in 2011.

VERDICT: FALSE