Did US give Greenland to Denmark? Fact-checking Donald Trump's Davos speech

United States President Donald Trump addressed political and business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday (January 21), kicking off his second year of returning to the White House.

Throughout the address, Trump presented his record as transformative, repeatedly contrasting his leadership with that of previous US administrations and foreign governments.

However, a close examination of his claims against records, official statistics and independent assessments shows that several of his statements were inaccurate, exaggerated or only partially supported by evidence.

Greenland, World War II and claims of US ownership

Trump
drew applause and criticism in equal measure after invoking World War II to justify renewed American interest in Greenland. During the speech, he stated, “After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that?”

He later expanded on the argument, saying, “After the war, which we won, without us, you’d all be speaking German and a little Japanese. After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that? How ungrateful are they now?”

He added, “So we want a piece of ice for world protection. And they won’t give it.”

Historical documentation does not support the claim that the United States ever owned or controlled Greenland. Denmark formally established Greenland as a colony in 1814.

More than a century later, in 1916, Washington explicitly recognised Denmark’s sovereignty over the entire island through a bilateral agreement that also facilitated the US purchase of the Danish Virgin Islands for $25 million in gold.

That agreement remains preserved in US State Department archives.

During World War II, Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany. In 1941, the United States and Danish authorities signed an agreement allowing US forces to establish military bases on Greenland to prevent German control of the strategically important island.

Crucially, that agreement acknowledged Denmark’s continued sovereignty over Greenland. At no point did the US acquire ownership of the territory, nor did any US administration or Congress possess the authority to “return” Greenland after the war.

While Greenland is geographically dominated by ice and holds strategic value in Arctic defence, international law and historical treaties make clear that it has never been US territory.

Trump’s claims of economic boom in the US

Trump presented an optimistic assessment of the US economy, telling the Davos audience, “After 12 months back in the White House, our economy is booming. Growth is exploding. Productivity is surging. Investment is soaring. Incomes are rising.”

Economic data suggests a more complicated reality. One year into Trump’s second term, the US economy continues to expand at a steady pace, and unemployment remains historically low. However, several indicators fall short of describing the situation as an economic boom.

Hiring growth has slowed significantly compared with previous years. Inflation, while lower than its post-pandemic peak, remains elevated.

Consumer prices rose 2.7 per cent in December 2025 compared with the same month a year earlier. This marked only a modest improvement from the 2.9 per cent annual inflation rate recorded in December 2024.

Incomes adjusted for inflation are still rising, but at a slower rate than in 2023 and 2024, indicating that purchasing power gains have moderated rather than accelerated.

Trump also made a broad claim about declining living costs, stating, “Grocery prices, energy prices, airfares, mortgage rates, rent and car payments are all coming down, and they’re coming down fast.”

The data presents a mixed picture. Mortgage rates have fallen from just over 7 per cent when Trump assumed office in January 2025 to slightly above 6 per cent by mid-January 2026. Airfares, along with prices for new and used vehicles, have declined.

However, grocery prices have continued to rise overall, at a pace similar to their increase during former President Joe Biden’s final year in office.

While prices for certain items — including eggs, bacon, dairy products and bread — have declined, many staple goods have become more expensive. These include ground beef, steak, chicken breasts, coffee, fruits, vegetables, sugar and sweets.

Energy costs show a similar divergence. Electricity prices are nearly 7 per cent higher than a year ago. Gasoline prices, by contrast, have fallen nationally. After remaining near $3.10 per gallon for much of 2025, average prices dropped below $2.80 per gallon nationwide starting in November.

Nato funding and collective defence obligations

Trump again criticised Nato, stating, “Other presidents have spent, whether foolishly or not, trillions and trillions of dollars on Nato and gotten absolutely nothing in return. We’ve never asked for anything. It’s always a one-way street.”

He also claimed, “We pay for Nato. We paid for many years, until I came along, in my opinion, 100 per cent of Nato, because they weren’t paying their bills.”

Nato’s foundational purpose, outlined in Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, is collective defence. The treaty stipulates that an armed attack against one or more member states in Europe or North America is to be considered an attack against all.

It further commits members to assist the attacked party “by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force.”

According to the “Why NATO Matters” section of the US Mission to Nato’s official website, Article 5 has been invoked only once in the alliance’s history — following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Financial contributions to Nato also contradict Trump’s claims. NATO figures show that in 2025, the United States contributed approximately 16 per cent of the alliance’s common budget.

In the same year, 31 of NATO’s 32 member states were estimated to have met the alliance’s guideline of spending at least 2 per cent of their gross domestic product on defence.

Trump’s claims of settling eight wars

Trump declared during the speech, “You have to understand, I settled eight wars.” He has repeatedly cited this figure as evidence of his diplomatic success.

The conflicts Trump includes in this claim involve Israel and Hamas, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, India and Pakistan, Serbia and Kosovo, Rwanda and Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.

A closer examination of each situation reveals that many remain unresolved or are best described as fragile or ongoing.

In Gaza, active conflict continues, and there is no declaration of an end to the war. While Trump has been credited with helping to bring an end to the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, the situation is widely regarded as a temporary pause within a broader and enduring confrontation.

Fighting resumed last month between Cambodia and Thailand, as well as between Congolese forces and Rwanda-backed rebel groups.

In August, the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan signed an agreement at the White House aimed at ending a decades-long conflict. However, the agreement has not yet been formalised into a peace treaty, and neither country’s parliament has ratified it.

Following the April killing of tourists and one local in Kashmir, India and Pakistan moved closer to armed conflict than at any point in recent years. A ceasefire was subsequently reached.

Trump claimed that the US brokered the truce, and Pakistan publicly thanked him. New Delhi, however, denied that Washington played such a role.

Tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam continue but have not escalated into open warfare.

Meanwhile, there has been no active war between Serbia and Kosovo during Trump’s second term, nor evidence that his administration has significantly improved relations between the two sides.

Wind energy, Europe’s economy and China’s role

Trump criticised renewable energy policies, particularly in Europe, stating, “There are windmills all over Europe. There are windmills all over the place and they are losers. One thing I’ve noticed is that the more windmills a country has, the more money that country loses and the worse that country’s doing.”

Data from the US Energy Information Administration paints a different picture. Onshore wind power is among the least expensive sources of new electricity generation, with costs estimated at around $30 per megawatt hour.

By comparison, new natural gas plants are projected to cost roughly $65 per megawatt hour, while advanced nuclear reactors exceed $80 per megawatt hour.

Offshore wind remains more costly, with estimated costs of $88 per megawatt hour. Despite this, the United Kingdom has significantly expanded offshore wind capacity.

In 2026, it secured 8.4 gigawatts of offshore wind energy through a European auction — the largest single procurement in British and European history.

According to the UK government, this expansion has reduced offshore wind costs to around 40 per cent less than new gas generation and is sufficient to power the equivalent of more than 12 million homes.

Trump also claimed, “China makes almost all of the wind mills, and yet I haven’t been able to find any wind farms in China… They make them. They sell them for a fortune…But they don’t use them themselves.”

China is, in fact, the world’s largest wind power market. According to the Global Wind Energy Council, China accounted for 70 per cent of all new wind installations globally in 2024.

The country’s cumulative wind power capacity exceeded 520 gigawatts, representing nearly half of total global installed wind capacity.

Europe’s electricity production and prices

Trump argued that Europe’s energy transition has undermined electricity generation and affordability, saying, “Germany now generates 22 per cent less electricity than it did in 2017… and the electricity prices are ‘64 per cent higher.’”

He added, “The United Kingdom produces just 1/3 of the total energy from all sources that it did in 1999.”

German electricity generation did decline from 546.9 terawatt hours in 2017 to 406.9 terawatt hours in 2025 — a reduction of approximately 25 per cent, according to the Fraunhofer Institute.

However, electricity prices in Germany have increased by about 35 per cent, based on data from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, rather than the 64 per cent figure cited by Trump.

In the UK, total electricity generation fell to 285 terawatt hours in 2024, around 25 per cent lower than levels recorded in 2000, according to government data. This represents a substantial decline, but not the two-thirds reduction claimed in Trump’s remarks.

Immigration, migration trends and housing costs

Trump repeated an unsubstantiated claim that foreign countries had “emptied their mental institutions into the United States.” He has never provided evidence for this assertion, and neither his campaign nor the White House has been able to corroborate it.

He also stated, “In 2025, for the first time in 50 years, the United States had reverse migration.” A January 13 analysis by the Brookings Institution found that net migration in 2025 was close to zero or slightly negative, largely due to Trump’s immigration policies.

The analysis cautioned that reduced transparency in migration data has increased uncertainty around precise estimates. The last time the US experienced sustained negative net migration was between 1931 and 1940, during the Great Depression.

On housing, Trump claimed that “a major factor in driving up housing costs was the mass invasion of our borders.”

Available evidence does not support a direct link between undocumented immigration and rising housing prices. Housing experts instead attribute higher costs to a long-term shortage of millions of homes, compounded by higher interest rates and increased demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.

UK oil taxation

Referring to North Sea oil production, Trump said, “They make it impossible for the oil companies to go, they take 92% of the revenues.”

In reality, oil and gas producers operating in the North Sea pay a 30 per cent corporation tax and a supplementary 10 per cent charge, reported BBC.

In November 2024, the UK government raised the windfall tax on oil and gas profits from 35 per cent to 38 per cent.

This brings the total tax burden to 78 per cent, applied to profits rather than revenues. The windfall tax, introduced in 2022 in response to rising energy bills, is set to expire in 2030.

The 2020 US election

Trump also reiterated his claim that the 2020 US presidential election was fraudulent, stating, “It’s a war that should have never started and it wouldn’t have started if the 2020 US presidential election weren’t rigged. It was a rigged election. Everybody now knows that. They found out. People will soon be prosecuted for what they did.”

There is no evidence supporting claims that the 2020 election was rigged. Multiple investigations launched by Republicans at both federal and state levels found no widespread voter fraud.

Trump’s former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, falsely alleged that Dominion Voting Systems manipulated election results. Dominion sued Giuliani for defamation, leading to a confidential settlement in 2025.

Giuliani was also disbarred in New York and Washington, DC, for repeating false statements related to the election.

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With inputs from agencies