NATO and Transatlantic Relations

NPR’s morning brief reports that European leaders are convening an emergency summit to discuss the United States and Greenland, a direct response to President Donald Trump’s renewed drive to acquire the island and his threats to punish European NATO allies with tariffs if they resist. Trump’s Davos remarks and social‑media posts have already rattled governments in Denmark and across Europe, who see his talk of taking Greenland 'one way or the other' as a challenge to post‑war norms that NATO allies do not buy and sell each other’s territories. The emergency meeting underscores just how seriously European governments are treating what some in the U.S. have shrugged off as bluster, with diplomats warning that the episode could fracture alliance cohesion at the same time Washington is demanding higher defense spending. In parallel, the brief notes that the U.S. Supreme Court is weighing a case on Trump’s power to fire Federal Reserve governors, raising questions abroad about the resilience of U.S. institutions as allies try to gauge how far Trump can go on both foreign and economic policy.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that President Trump’s push to seize Greenland amounts to a “deep crisis” for NATO that undermines the Western rules‑based order, saying Moscow is watching the transatlantic rift with a mix of glee and wariness even as it denies intent to threaten the island. He also denounced the U.S. raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as a “crude military intervention,” remarks made as Denmark and Greenland rebuffed U.S. acquisition efforts, European troops deployed to Greenland for Arctic exercises, and the White House floated military options and tariffs to press allies.