Trump's Greenland tariff threat aims to divide Europe - analyst

US President Donald Trump is using his threat of tariffs against eight European NATO allies in an effort to divide Europe, according to a senior researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).

"Trump is doing this because he can and because Greenland is an important 'trophy' for him," Laura von Daniels told dpa.

By targeting individual European countries with tariffs, Trump was seeking "to apply maximum pressure and to split the Europeans, who until now have stood closely united in the Greenland crisis," she said.

In recent weeks, there has been repeated speculation that the US Supreme Court could soon rule on the emergency tariffs and potentially curb Trump's unilateral actions, von Daniels noted.

Normally, tariff authority rests with the US Congress, but the Trump administration has bypassed lawmakers by invoking a national emergency law from 1977 known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

Under the law, the president can issue decrees in crisis situations without involving parliament.

That could partly explain the timing of Trump's sudden tariff decision, von Daniels said.

Another possible reason, von Daniels added, was a calculated show of power ahead of Trump's planned trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, which is set to begin on Monday.

"Trump is relying on intimidation and the humiliation of his own allies, above all Denmark and Greenland," she said.

From a security and economic perspective, there were no comprehensible reasons for the move, according to the expert.

Rather, Trump may be seeking to undermine the united stance of the "coalition of the willing" defending Greenland's interests and respect for international law.