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"After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark," what is the truth behind Trump's statement in Davos?

2026-01-22 22:05:11Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Trump in Davos

In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Wednesday, President Trump rebuked European allies and reaffirmed his ambitions to acquire Greenland.

Trump also distorted the history of Greenland, attacked the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and repeated now-famous false claims about the economy and his personal balance sheet.

Here is a fact check conducted by the Financial Times.

WHAT WAS TOLD?

"After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that? But we did. We gave it back."

This claim is false. Trump was most likely referring to a World War II-era defense pact between the United States and Denmark. But that agreement did not give the United States sovereignty or control over Greenland.

In 1941, after the Nazi occupation of Denmark, the Danish ambassador in Washington signed the agreement, giving the US the rights to military bases in Greenland, in exchange for the island's defense.

Steven Press, a history professor at Stanford University whose research focuses on European sovereignty, said the pact was “legally shaky because it did not involve the Danish state beyond the ambassador to the US, who essentially acted as a government in exile.”

Mikkel Runge Olesen, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies in Copenhagen, acknowledged that although the ambassador essentially “acted independently,” there was a clear limit to what he had agreed to. “But of course he didn’t hand over the islands,” Olesen added. “He only gave rights to the bases.”

The pact contains several references to Denmark’s sovereignty over Greenland, calling the kingdom the island’s “motherland.” One passage reads: “The Government of the United States of America reaffirms its recognition of and respect for the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark over Greenland.”

If the US had decided to take Greenland by force at the end of World War II, “Denmark would not have been able to do anything to stop it,” Olesen said. “But there would have been no legal basis for it,” he added.

Press said Trump's statement would be more accurate "if we believe that sovereignty is primarily about pure force, rather than treaties or popular consent." But he stressed that "beyond the logic of brute force, the US had no authority to 'hold' or claim sovereignty over Greenland."

In 1951, after the Truman administration unsuccessfully tried to purchase Greenland, the US again recognized Danish sovereignty over the island in a military agreement that allowed it to continue building bases there.

"Danish sovereignty has been and remains the legal basis for the US military presence," Press said. "It is Denmark's sovereignty that gives the US military rights there."

WHAT WAS TOLD?

"Until I came in, NATO was supposed to pay only 2 percent of GDP, but they weren't. Most countries weren't paying anything. The United States was paying practically 100 percent of NATO. And I stopped that. I said, 'This is not fair.' But more importantly, I made NATO pay 5 percent, and now they are paying."

This claim is incorrect. For years, Trump has been misrepresenting NATO countries' military spending. Member countries make direct contributions to the common budget based on national income and, at the same time, agree to spend a certain percentage of GDP on defense.

Trump's complaints during his first term led to a reduction in the US contribution to NATO's common fund. The US had paid about 22 percent of the alliance's core budget, but that figure fell to 16 percent in 2019 and 15 percent this month.

In 2014, member countries pledged to increase military spending to 2 percent of GDP, over a 10-year period. Only four of the more than 30 countries met that target in 2016. The number rose to eight in 2020 (the final year of Trump’s first term), to 18 in 2024, and to 31 countries in 2025. While NATO officials and experts attribute a role in the spending increase to Trump, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also had a major impact.

Trump is right to say that, at his urging, NATO countries agreed last year to increase military spending to 5 percent of national income by 2035. But that has not happened yet. By the end of 2025, no country had reached the 5 percent threshold.

WHAT WAS TOLD?

"So what have we gotten from NATO? Nothing, except that we defended Europe from the Soviet Union and now from Russia."

This is false. NATO has only activated the mutual defense clause once in its history: after the September 11 attacks.

NATO allies actively engaged in the American war on terrorism, under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which stipulates that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.

NATO conducted counterterrorism operations, deploying radar aircraft over the US and naval forces patrolling the Mediterranean. The allies sent tens of thousands of troops to Afghanistan, including 18,000 from Denmark, of whom 43 died between 2002 and 2014.

OTHER CLAIMS

Trump also made a number of other inaccurate claims, previously verified by The New York Times:

– He falsely claimed to have brought in $18 trillion in investment. (The figure is double what the White House itself has reported and is based on broad promises.)

– He said the Tax and Domestic Policy Act, signed last summer, included “no Social Security taxes.” (The law reduced taxes on Social Security income, but did not eliminate them entirely.)

– He claimed that China has no wind farms. (China has more wind farms and wind energy capacity than any other country.)

– He said his predecessor had given Ukraine $350 billion. (Official and independent estimates are about half that figure.)

– He claimed to have “solved eight wars.” (His role is disputed in some cases, and the fighting has not ended in others.)

– He incorrectly stated that food prices are “falling.” (Prices continue to rise.)

– He claimed that prescription drug prices had fallen by “5, 6, 7, 800 percent,” even “2,000 percent.” (Official data shows price increases.)

– He claimed that the Biden administration allowed “11,888 murderers” into the U.S. (The figure included immigrants who had entered the country over the past 40 years.)

– He claimed without evidence that his military attacks on ships reduced maritime drug trafficking by 97.2 percent. (According to data and experts, this is highly unlikely.)


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