Donald Trump's recent threats over Greenland may be de-escalating, but the uproar has motivated some European entities to consider divesting themselves from the U.S., a trend the president threatened with a "big retaliation" during an interview with Fox News.
Trump has spent much of the new year renewing his demand for the U.S. to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory controlled by Denmark, and said that military force could potentially be deployed. Danish leaders and others throughout Europe widely condemned the idea as a threat to Denmark's sovereignty and a threat to the stability of NATO.
The idea appears to be dying down after Trump and European officials, after a meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, claimed to have agreed on the framework of a plan granting the U.S. an increased presence in Greenland, reportedly by granting the country sovereignty over pockets of the island for the creation of more military bases.
However that plan shakes out, the ordeal has done much to sour European entities on continued relations with the U.S., particularly on the financial side. A number of foreign funds have announced plans to divest from American assets and distance themselves from the U.S. financially, citing concerns about their long-term stability under Trump's leadership.
During a Thursday interview with Fox Business, Trump was pressed about this trend, and warned other nations and groups to reconsider going down such a path.
“There would be a big retaliation on our part,” Trump said. “We have all the cards."
AkademerPension, a Danish fund managing the savings of teachers and academics in Denmark, was among the first foreign entities to announce its move away from U.S. Treasuries this week, pledging to divest its holdings by the end of the month. While the fund noted that the Greenland situation was a factor, it stressed that the decision was largely driven by "concerns about fiscal discipline and a weaker dollar" caused by Trump's leadership.
“The US is basically not a good credit and long-term the US government finances are not sustainable,” Anders Schelde, chief investment officer at AkademikerPension, explained in an interview with Bloomberg.
Elsewhere, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, a Canadian fund that manages around $200 billion, confirmed to Bloomberg that it had lowered its investments in U.S. assets early in 2025, while also stressing that the country remains an "important territory" for them.
“We thought we were a little exposed to the dollar and to U.S. Treasuries, so we’ve cut them both,” Jo Taylor, president and CEO of the fund, explained. “The U.S. is still around 30% of our overall portfolio and remains an important territory for us in terms of further capital.”
