Robert Fico, one of the few EU leaders to frequently support Trump's stance on Europe's weaknesses, was concerned about the U.S. president's "psychological state," two of the diplomats said. Fico used the word "dangerous" to describe how the U.S. president came across during their face-to-face meeting at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Jan. 17, according to two of the diplomats.
He announced a 10 percent tariff on eight European countries that had sent troops to Greenland for a military exercise. On Sunday afternoon, he composed a poorly punctuated, paranoiac note to the Norwegian prime minister in which he blamed the Norwegian government for not being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, said the rejection had liberated him to stop thinking about peace, and claimed that it had set him on the path to conquer Greenland to protect the United States.
EU leaders gathered for a hastily arranged summit in Brussels on Thursday evening, hours after most of them had been in Davos for the World Economic Forum amid the furore over Greenland caused by US President Donald Trump. The emergency summit was originally supposed to discuss a response to threats of fresh tariffs over Greenland. But US President Donald Trump's nebulous announcement of a "deal" appeared to have taken this specter off the table, at least in the immediate term.
Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, can rarely be described as looking happy. His brick wall of a face and somber voice, worn down by many years of smoking Marlboros, have earned him the nickname "Minister No." But when the question of Greenland came up yesterday at his press conference in Moscow, Lavrov seemed to come alive, even permitting himself a smile and a chuckle as he talked about President Trump's imperial designs on the Danish territory and the response from NATO allies.
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Markets reacted with speed and force. Gold jumped as much as 2.1% to a record $4,690 per troy ounce, while silver surged 4.4% as investors rush into havens. European equities opened sharply lower, with the Stoxx Europe 600 down 1.5%. Read more related news: Trump warns Norway he will not 'think exclusively about peace' US futures tracking the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 fell 0.9% and 1.2% respectively, even with US cash markets closed for Martin Luther King Jr Day.
On Wednesday Brussels is due to outline the terms of the 90bn loan it has promised to Ukraine, amid internal tensions over whether Kyiv can use the money to buy US as well as EU weapons. On the same day, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is due to meet ministers from Denmark and Greenland, as Donald Trump continues to insist that the US will take ownership of the latter one way or another.
