Volodymyr Fesenko: Europe Has Forced Trump To Back Down

• 22.01.2026, 13:57

Europeans have learned to say "no."

US President Donald Trump has changed his mind about imposing duties against EU countries that supported Denmark in defending Greenland, publicly stated that he refuses a military solution to the issue, and after a conversation with Alliance chief Marco Rutte it was reported that the US will limit itself to the appearance of military bases on the island.

What are we witnessing: the art of the deal by the US president or the result of internal and external pressure on Trump?

About this, Charter97.org talked to a well-known Ukrainian political scientist, head of the Center for Applied Political Research "Penta" Vladimir Fesenko:

- What is happening can be called the art of the deal from Trump, it's just that this art does not always work. There are those who know how to respond to him effectively, as China did or as Ukraine did. We are not in conflict with the US president, but we are translating the problem into negotiations on specific points and positions. This is yielding results. Not final, but nevertheless we manage to reach an agreement with the Americans and remove most of the problems.

Europe, on the other hand, has not yet found the optimal tactics for negotiations with Trump. There is no unity in positions, different tactics are used. Now some European leaders are trying to use tougher tactics against Trump. First of all - French President Emmanuel Macron, partly Germany, naturally - Denmark, the Nordic countries. But there is also a very flexible negotiator with Trump who actually achieved this result. That's Mark Rutte, the NATO secretary general. He's desperately fighting to save the Alliance, to keep the U.S. in NATO.

He's looking for a compromise on Greenland. Trump's announcement that he will not impose duties against European countries is the result of talks with Mark Rutte. And the result of finding a compromise. We do not know yet what exactly will be the compromise on Greenland. But apparently Rutte is proposing to increase the number of military bases on Greenland, which would be under partial sovereignty of the United States. A model that is being used by the UK in Cyprus. Trump is apparently fine with this.

All those American flags on maps of Greenland, Trump's statements that Greenland will become part of the United States, and so on - in my opinion, it was a mental attack. Who else remembers the Soviet movie "Chapaev", there was an attack of Kappel's men under machine gun fire in full mount. It was called a psychic attack. It's a psychological technique. The strongest psychological pressure on the opposite side. Ukraine has encountered this several times, especially under the resource agreement. And now Trump has pulled something similar against the Europeans, against Denmark.

And Denmark and the Europeans did not make concessions. But apparently, Trump and his administration also realize that they can't just break the Europeans. So more flexible tactics are needed. Mark Rutte once again showed miracles of ability to negotiate with Trump. He apparently offered the US President some kind of compromise option, and Trump agreed to it. In my opinion, this is now a positive trend.

This is not yet a solution to the problem. There still has to be negotiations with Denmark, negotiations within NATO and harmonization of this issue. But the fact that Trump is willing to compromise, in particular, refuses to negotiate these duties, this is already a positive trend. Accordingly, now it is necessary to transfer the negotiations to the plane of agreement on specific problematic issues. Ukraine has already faced this repeatedly, we know how it happens. Now Europeans also need to pass this stage with the participation of Denmark.

Trump said that he will not solve the problem of Greenland by military means. It is important to find a balance between Denmark's sovereignty over Greenland, its autonomous status, the right of the inhabitants of Greenland over their territory. At the same time, the compromise will develop in the plane of agreement on the creation of elements of the "Golden Dome" on the territory of Greenland.

This is a large missile defense system that Trump is now planning to create. And, apparently, there will still be a separate investment agreement on the work of American companies in Greenland. But here we should already look for a compromise with Denmark, because here, I think, we may be talking about some kind of joint venture. I emphasize that the fact that Trump is taking a step back is a positive trend.

- Can Europe exhale or wait for new surprises from the US president?

- If we talk about exhaling after a critical aggressive phase - yes, we can exhale. But this does not mean the end of the process and the resolution of the problem.

The conflict, aggressive phase is over. But there are still complex, difficult negotiations ahead. It's too early to draw conclusions. We have to be very careful with Trump, but, I repeat, the first positive thing is that Trump still agrees to some kind of compromise.

The second positive thing is that for the first time Europeans have started to say "no" to Trump on the issue of Greenland's status. Now that too, in my opinion, is a positive trend. And that's one of the reasons why Trump has to partially back down.