Allies stand against Trump's tariff threats over Greenland

陈小将

A heckler shouted at Vanessa Williams while she sang the US national anthem before an NBA game in London, England, between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Orlando Magic on Sunday, The Associated Press reported.

The heckler drew scattered laughter and applause, though Williams was unfazed and completed the song.

US President Donald Trump has insisted that the semiautonomous Danish territory should be controlled by the United States for "national security" reasons, and that anything less would be "unacceptable". Trump said he plans to impose tariffs on eight European countries that oppose his desire to control the Arctic island.

In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump said the countries will have a 10 percent tariff on all goods imported to the US, effective Feb 1. He threatened to raise the tariffs to 25 percent if an agreement was not made by June 1.

On Monday, Trump told the Norwegian prime minister in a message that the world would not be secure unless the US controlled Greenland. "Considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 wars plus, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America," Trump wrote in the letter to Jonas Gahr Store.

Asked what national emergency was being invoked, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told NBC News that the tariffs were justified because "the national emergency is avoiding the national emergency".

Bessent argued that European "weakness" necessitated US control of Greenland for global stability.

EU leaders will meet on Thursday evening for an emergency summit on threats by Trump, a spokeswoman said on Monday.

The crisis talks in Brussels come as the bloc weighs potential countermeasures if Trump follows through on punishing some of Washington's closest allies.

The German and French finance ministers said on Monday that the European powers would not be blackmailed and there would be a clear and united response to threats of tariffs.

"Germany and France agree: we will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed," German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said at his ministry where he received his French counterpart.

"Blackmail between allies of 250 years, blackmail between friends, is obviously unacceptable," French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said at the same event.

Earlier, eight of the US' closest European allies on Sunday stood against the tariffs.