The EU was weighing up retaliatory tariffs on American goods and even deploying its most serious economic sanctions against the US as European leaders lined up to criticise Donald Trump’s threat to levy new taxes on imports from eight nations who oppose his attempt to annex Greenland – which one minister called “blackmail”.
“Tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral,” the leaders of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland said in a joint statement. “We are committed to upholding our sovereignty.”
The EU’s top diplomats met for crisis talks on Sunday and were expected to discuss reviving a plan to levy tariffs on €93bn ($108bn) of US goods, which was suspended after last year’s trade deal with Trump.
Here are the top stories:
French president calls on fellow European leaders to use anti-coercion instrument if US implements tariffs
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, called on fellow leaders to activate the EU’s powerful anti-coercion instrument – commonly known as the “big bazooka” – if Trump went ahead with his tariff threats, French media reported, citing his team.
Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said Trump’s tariffs would be a mistake, and the Dutch foreign minister, David van Weel, described the US president’s threats to allies as “blackmail”, as reaction from European leaders continued to pile up.
The anti-coercion law, which has so far never been used, enables the EU to impose punitive economic measures on a country seeking to force a policy change.
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Trump’s calls to seize Greenland ignite fresh criticism from Republican party
Donald Trump’s escalating calls for the United States to seize or otherwise obtain Greenland has ignited fresh criticism from the president’s own Republican party, with some saying it could hurt the US economically or strain the Nato military alliance.
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Pentagon readies 1,500 troops for potential Minnesota deployment, officials say
The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers in Alaska to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota, the site of large protests against the government’s deportation drive, two US officials told Reuters on Sunday.
The US army placed the units on prepare-to-deploy orders in case violence in the midwestern state escalates, the officials said, though it is not clear whether any of them will be sent.
Donald Trump has threatened to use the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces if Democratic officials in the state do not stop protesters from impeding immigration officials after a surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
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Democrat targeted by Trump attacks ‘authoritarian’ effort to intimidate critics
Donald Trump is borrowing a strategy from authoritarian regimes to intimidate potential critics and discourage them from speaking out, according to a senator under investigation by his administration.
Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan, faces questioning after she organised and appeared in a video with other Democrats imploring military service members to refuse “illegal orders”. Fellow senator Mark Kelly and three Democrats from the House of Representatives are also being investigated.
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White House press secretary tells CBS ‘we’ll sue your ass off’ if it edits Trump interview
Donald Trump’s White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, was recently recorded warning CBS News to broadcast a new interview with the president in full and without edits – or “we’ll sue your ass off”.
Trump “said, ‘Make sure you guys don’t cut the tape, make sure the interview is out in full,’” Leavitt told CBS anchor Tony Dokoupil after he had interviewed the president, according to an audio exchange first reported on by the New York Times.
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Trump exacts revenge on Bill Cassidy by backing possible Republican challenger
Donald Trump has sought to deliver a staggering blow to the re-election chances of Senator Bill Cassidy – the president’s fellow Republican with whom he has politically feuded – by giving his “complete and total endorsement” to a potential primary opponent.
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Growing sense of embarrassment at Fifa over Donald Trump peace prize
There is a growing sense of embarrassment among mid-level and senior officials within Fifa over the awarding of its peace prize to Donald Trump. The US president was handed the award at the World Cup draw in Washington DC in December with the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, telling Trump: “We want to see hope, we want to see unity, we want to see a future. This is what we want to see from a leader and you definitely deserve the first Fifa Peace Prize.”
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What else happened today:
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A New York City artist who said Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell shopped her around to men is among the survivors claiming that Epstein used the lure of a university education to ensnare her in their sexual abuse network.
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The Trump Media ETFs, which were officially launched on the stock exchange at the end of Decemberare being branded as “America First” funds, a kind of antithesis to the “woke” environmental, social and governance (ESG) movement that was popular in investment, particularly at the end of Trump’s first term.
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Hundreds of counterprotesters on Saturday drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
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Far-right members of Israel’s governing coalition on Sunday rejected a US-backed plan for postwar governance in Gazacriticising their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for failing to annex the Palestinian territory and establish new Israeli settlements in the territory.
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Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, warned on Sunday that any attack on the country’s supreme leaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei, would be a declaration of war.
Catching up? Here’s what happened Saturday 17 January.
