Enda Brady: UK correspondent on Donald Trump dropping proposed tariffs on NATO countries

Greenland remains on edge - even after Donald Trump has ruled out tariffs on NATO countries and military force to seize the Arctic island.

The US President spoke at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, claiming he’s laid the groundwork for a future deal.

UK correspondent Enda Brady unpacked the reactions to this development.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You could hear the unclinching across Europe as Trump back
down on Greenland. Let's got it into Brady, a UK
correspondent in did you hear it too?

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yes? Ryan, Look relief one word, relief everyone in Europe.
This has just exercised everyone's brains since the turn of
the year. I guess relief gladly so that everything seems
to be calming down. A deal is imminent, and I
think the person we can thank is Mark Rutta, the
NATO Secretary General former Prime Minister of the Netherlands. He

(00:31):
seems to have Trump's here and he spent some time
privately with him yesterday and Davos, and after that everything changed.
But Trump turned up. It was fire and fury. One
hour of his speech. He got quite carried away. On
multiple occasions he mistakenly called Greenland Iceland. We don't know, well,
we don't know if it was deliberate, as he's trying

(00:52):
to frighten people in Iceland as well, but he kept
calling Greenland Iceland and vice versa. It was a very
strong speech and then everything just calmed down a couple
of hours later after he met Ruttera. So something has changed.
I think a deal is imminent, but America will not
be invaded in Greenland, it won't be using military force.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
And saying all of that, the Allies won't forget this,
will they. I mean, there's been a few things not
to forget so fad, but this one in particular.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well, I think everyone in Europe now has come to
the conclusion belatedly. I believe that Trump is not a friend.
And we saw his behavior here in the United Kingdom.
He came here on a second state visit, which was
unprecedented in September, and within four days of him going home,
he was having a goal and being really critical about

(01:40):
the mayor of London, Sadik Khan, who has won three
elections back to back to back, by the way, you know,
democratic elections to be mayor of London and is doing
a good job and is a decent, hard working man.
And Trump had ripped into him just a few days
after being in London. So we know what he is
and it's all about him, all about the deal, you know,

(02:01):
Make no mistake, Greenland's rare earth minerals will be heading
to the United States. But the question I would ask,
having had Greenlandic people on my TV show last week.
Why haven't they been taken out of the earth so far?
People have known about them for a century. There's a
very good reason.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Now STAMA is off to China. This is I saw
the protest about the mega embassy in London that people
didn't want to be built. He's green let that now
is off to China.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yes, trade deals, this is what this is all about.
He's taking quite a few British CEOs with him on
this mission to Beijing. No UK Prime minister has been
to China since twenty eighteen, back in the days of
Theresa May. So this is a big deal. And look,
I think Starmar couldn't have gone to China without signing
off on their new embassy in London. It is a

(02:48):
mega embassy, by the way, it is going to be
when it's built, the biggest Chinese embassy anywhere in the world.
Now people have had concerns. Certainly the Hong Kong exp
community are very concerned about surveillance and arrest and torture.
That's what they allege. We know there are bunker basement
rooms put in on the architectural plans. The intelligence services

(03:12):
have serious concerns that those bunker rooms will be used
to tap into the financial cables that go through the
City of London, all the banking and wire transactions. So
there have been legitimate concerns raised about why China needs
and embassy of this size, But I think the Chinese
were getting angrier and angrier. They bought that land in
twenty eighteen and it's taken eight years for the UK

(03:34):
to grant planning permission.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Now it's got a Harry. He's lift caught after two
hours giving evidence. This is the Daily Mold case in tears, Yes.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
An emotional finish to Harry's evidence. So two hours understand
and he gave as good as he got and he
made the point. He landed quite a few blows yesterday.
So this is his final piece of legislation or core
case against the newspapers, against the Daily Mail and the
Mail on Sunday, who deny any wrongdoing. And Harry very

(04:05):
forcefully said in his evidence yesterday through tears at the
end that these newspapers have made my wife's life a misery.
That was the key message. And he spoke also about
other relationships that broke down because the trust was gone,
or anything that appeared in the newspapers. He would question
the closest people to him, and he believes that it

(04:27):
wasn't people in his circle leaking information, that it was
newspapers gathering things nefariously. So the case continues and Liz Hurley,
the actress and model, will give evidence later today. Nine
weeks this is scheduled to run.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
Appreciate Your Tom Into Brady, a UK correspondent.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
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