New York, Jan 20 (IANS) US President Donald Trump started the anniversary of his inauguration as president for a second term on Tuesday with a push to upend the strategic international order, risking a rupture with the NATO alliance that has underpinned Western security for 76 years, while he made a friendly gesture to Russia.

“The United States of America is the most powerful Country anywhere on the Globe, by far,” he declared in an early morning post on Truth Social, as he reiterated his imperial agenda and testing its limits, he doubled down on claims to Greenland and issued a veiled threat to resurrect designs on Canada.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron accused Trump of trying to “weaken and subordinate” Europe and raised the threat of the European Union retaliating with one of its harshest countermeasures against the US, even if it sounds “crazy”.

He said, “I do regret that, but this is a consequence of just unpredictability and useless aggressivity”.

Macron was referring to what is colloquially known as the “Bazooka Option”, which would impose large tariffs and other economic and political sanctions on countries coercing members of the European Union.

Such a countermeasure could doom the Trans-Atlantic alliance, whose core is NATO.

In a challenge to NATO, Trump invited its nemesis, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, to join his Peace Council.

As the spectacle of a NATO member threatening aggression against another was playing out, Trump was set to jet to Davos for the World Economic Forum, where he would come face to face with some of the leaders he is locked in a showdown over Greenland.

“I agreed to a meeting of the various parties in Davos, Switzerland”, he said on TruthSocial, adding,” Greenland is imperative for National and World Security. There can be no going back.”

For emphasis, he posted a picture of himself planting the US flag on Greenland.

He also had a photograph of himself in the Oval Office with a map showing Greenland, Venezuela, and – as a reminder that he hasn’t forgotten his earlier threat – Canada as part of an enlarged US.

Opposition to annexing Greenland is equally strong domestically: According to a CBS News poll, 86 per cent of Americans oppose a military takeover, and 70 per cent buy it.

Trump threatened France with a 200 per cent tariff on its wine and Champagne after reports that France’s President Emmanuel Macron was planning to boycott the Peace Council because of Russia’s likely presence on it.

That was on top of the 10 per cent tariffs he said he was imposing on France and seven other countries that opposed his plan to take over Greenland, with an escalation to 25 per cent in June.

Trump proposed the Peace Council as part of the Gaza deal to end the conflict there and rebuild it, and has now widened its options to take on broader global issues, and with his suggestion of $1 billion permanent membership, an alternative to the United Nations.

In the flurry of TruthSocial posts, he sounded civil towards Mark Rutte, the secretary-general of NATO, which has 30 European members, besides the US and Canada.

He called their phone conversation “good” and displayed a text from Rutte, “I am committed to finding a way forward on Greenland”.

Rutte’s message showed the dilemma within NATO on how to respond to Trump.

Earlier, Trump had mockingly posted a screenshot of a message from Macron suggesting a G7 meeting in Paris after Davos, with Denmark, Syria, Ukraine and Russia on the sidelines.

In that message, Macron also said, “Let us try to build great things”, and mentioned possibilities in Iran and Syria.

In other posts, Trump took issue with Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer over Diego Garcia, whose sovereignty Britain handed back to Mauritius, but signed a lease to base US and British bases on the strategic island.

Trump also revealed in a message to Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store that not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize made him give up on peace.

Ukraine is in the shadows in the current dispute over Greenland.

Trump, who campaigned in 2024 that he would end the Ukraine War in 24 hours of taking office, has been stumped even a year later, despite alternating support for Kyiv and Moscow, and a summit with Putin.

Ukraine and Western European nations recently came up with a plan for ending the conflict that tries to deal with Russia’s concerns, and have billed it as a good proposition to end the war, even though Moscow is taking a hardline position.

Trump likely had a chance to work on it with Moscow to find peace there.

Now, the Greenland imbroglio has thrown a Ukraine deal into question and strengthened Russia’s hand with NATO in disarray.

Domestically, there’s overwhelming opposition to Greenland annexation, while other issues like “affordability” — or the effects of inflation — and the divisions on handling illegal migrants dominate in a year when there will be crucial mid-term elections that can determine the control of Congress.

Trump’s unfavourable rating in RealClear Politics aggregation is 53.6 per cent, showing a 10.4 per cent spread.

A strategy for Trump could be to gamble on presenting Greenland takeover as a fait accompli in the year when the US celebrates the 250th anniversary of its Independence and trump with an overflow of patriotism.

–IANS

al/dan