For many European leaders, Trump’s jibes have worn off

“Without us, you would all be speaking German right now,” President Donald Trump told an audience at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alps on Wednesday.

He probably forgot that German is the most widely spoken of Switzerland’s four official languages.

From Brussels to Berlin to Paris, many will find his speech insulting, overbearing and inaccurate.

In it, he advances the idea that Europe is on the wrong track. It’s a theme that Trump often explores, but it has a different impact when expressed to so-called friends and allies on European soil.

There is no doubt that all of Europe is breathing a sigh of relief US president rules out using force to seize Greenland at the Davos Forum.

But even if he keeps his word, the underlying issue remains that he wants a piece of land that the owner says he won’t sell.

“What is very clear after this speech is that the president’s ambitions remain intact,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Luck Rasmussen told reporters in Copenhagen.

He said Trump’s comments about the military were “positive in isolation.”

Thousands of miles from Davos, government officials in Nuuk, the Greenland capital, have launched a new brochure offering advice to residents on what to do if a “crisis” occurs in the region.

Self-Sufficiency Minister Peter Borg said the document was “an insurance policy”. He said the Greenlandic government did not expect to use it.

Crucially, there was no hint in Trump’s speech that his current threats would be softened. New tariffs on eight European countries – which he says are hindering his Arctic ambitions.

The proposed 10% tax would come into effect on February 1, but it was not mentioned.

Any hope in Europe that President Trump could emerge from this transatlantic crisis was dashed as he began to outline his uncompromising argument for seizing the island.

He ignored Europe’s insistence that Greenland is a sovereign territory of the European Union and viewed the acquisition of Greenland as a perfectly reasonable deal because the United States has provided military support to the continent for decades.

Trump insists it was a mistake for the United States to “return” Greenland after acquiring it during World War II.

Greenland has never been part of the United States.

Trump reiterated his familiar assertion that European NATO members have done nothing for the United States.

He was particularly disparaging of Denmark when he recalled that in 1940 Denmark “fell into German hands after just six hours of fighting and was completely unable to defend itself or Greenland.”

Trump’s military history lessons failed to remind people that the Danes were a key partner in the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan and paid a heavy price for it.

Denmark lost 44 soldiers, A higher proportion than any other ally except the United States. They also lost personnel along with U.S. forces in Iraq.

After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, many other NATO allies supported the United States.

The person who received the most ridicule was French President Emmanuel Macron.

He was mocked for appearing in sunglasses on Tuesday – There’s something wrong with his eyes – and his “tough” talk from the podium.

Trump insisted he liked Macron, then continued: “It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?”

But for many European leaders, the whole joke has become less relevant.

They spent a year trying to flatter, impress and appease the President of the United States, only to be rewarded with their greatest threat yet.

The European Union held an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday, with top European politicians choosing to adopt their strongest words yet in response to U.S. policies.

The ball is now in the court of European courts – will they ramp up the rhetoric around counter-tariffs and the introduction of new tariffs? The EU’s “trade bazooka”?

Or will they stay silent and wait until February 1 to see if Trump actually follows through on his latest threat?

President Trump began his meandering hour-and-twelve-minute speech by boasting that “people are very happy with me” at home.

That sentiment is hard to find in the Europe the president claims to love so much after Trump’s latest extraordinary run with democracy.