World leaders view Trump’s threats as a ‘wake-up call’ to stop him: report

Ahead of President Donald Trump’s appearance at this week’s annual meeting of world leaders and business executives in Davos, Switzerland, many European leaders are reportedly determined to use the meeting to dissuade the president from his attempts to claim Greenland for the United States.That’s according to CNN business editor-at-large Richard Quest, who told host Erin Burnett that European officials have been strategizing about how to confront Trump when he arrives at Davos. Burnett played a clip of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent from Davos, in which he called on Europe to “take a deep breath, do not escalate.””President Trump has a strategy here. Hear him out, and then everything will be fine,” Bessent added.When Burnett asked Quest “how much fear and uncertainty is there” from European leaders, the CNN correspondent said it was “off the charts.””I’ve spoken today to the president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde. She talks about this being the greatest wake-up call that Europe has had over what needs to be done for Europe to come together,” he said. “She talks about mounting, growing uncertainty.””The president of Microsoft, Brad Smith, he told me today: ‘Look, the sheer amount of business being done between NATO countries and the companies means this has to be solved in a favorable way,'” Quest continued. “And yet at the same time, you have these leaders like [Mark] Carney from Canada, [Emmanuel] Macron from France, [Ursula] von der Leyen, from the [European Commission], they are saying that the message from Donald Trump, this one of strength, power, force, that Stephen Miller put out only a few weeks ago. They have to take it seriously.”Quest alluded to financial markets tumbling on Tuesday in response to Trump’s refusal to rule out using the military to annex Greenland. But he noted that the president’s remarks about Greenland during his recent White House press conference – in which he said Americans will “find out” what his plans are for the Danish-controlled island territory — mean that European leaders will likely seek a firm promise from the president that he will back down from threatening to seize Greenland.”It’s not an option to sort of follow Scott Bessent’s line. And that’s why you saw the market fall. That’s why you saw the worst day since October as reality is sinking in,” Quest said. “To be sure, Erin, tomorrow, here at Davos, Donald Trump could come here and play nicey-nicey, and Gary Cohn could be right, maximalist down to compromise. but which European leader wants to be on the wrong side of that decision? And that’s the dilemma that they face here tomorrow.” – YouTube www.youtube.com

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