Tariffs, Trump and Greenland: 'The end of the world as we know it'?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Keir Starmer has said that Donald Trump’s plan to put tariffs on the UK and seven other countries which oppose his takeover of Greenland is ‘completely wrong.’ Europe is considering its response, from counter tariffs to more radical options. So is this the start of a trade war or something even more serious?
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Guest: Oliver Moody, Berlin correspondent, The Times and The Sunday Times.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Producers: Olivia Case, Sophie McNulty.
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Read more: Trump-Greenland latest: US president not serious about invasion, says Starmer
Further listening: Can Nato survive a hostile takeover of Greenland?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From the Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. |
| 0:05.8 | I'm Manvine Rana. |
| 0:09.7 | Dear Janus, considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped eight wars plus, I no longer feel an |
| 0:22.1 | obligation to think purely of peace. |
| 0:25.0 | I won't lie. |
| 0:26.2 | When I first read it, I thought it was a badly written spoof, a misjudged attempt at satire. |
| 0:32.1 | But no, this really is the letter President Trump sent the Norwegian Prime Minister, |
| 0:38.2 | Yunus Garstdur, about the future of Greenland. |
| 0:42.9 | We voiced it up. |
| 0:45.0 | Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, |
| 0:47.9 | and why do you have a right of ownership anyway? |
| 0:50.7 | There are no written documents. |
| 0:52.2 | It's only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there also. It's only that a boat lained there hundreds of years ago, |
| 0:55.0 | but we had boats laying there also. That's not strictly true. There are a series of legal documents |
| 1:01.8 | and a treaty from 1814, but I'm not sure the president is a fan of historic detail, which he |
| 1:07.9 | confirmed were the last few lines of his letter. |
| 1:15.5 | I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now NATO should do something for the United States. The world is not secure unless we have a complete and total |
| 1:20.5 | control of Greenland. Thank you, President DJT. |
| 1:24.7 | And that comes at a time when President Trump is threatening to slap even higher tariffs on eight countries that sent troops as part of a NATO delegation to reassure the people of Greenland. |
| 1:36.6 | A new threat from President Trump in the standoff over Greenland. |
| 1:41.0 | The president says he'll impose a 10% tariff on Denmark and seven other European |
| 1:45.9 | nations opposed to his takeover plans. So what happens next? And how should Europe and the UK |
... |
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