John Bickley

Trump has said he will back off the tariffs only when Denmark agrees to sell Greenland.

Well, it looks like it could be a return of the trade wars that exploded last year.

Trump's threats have angered quite a few in the European Union who now want to freeze the trade agreement that the bloc struck with the U.S.

last year, a deal that Trump had called at the time the biggest ever made.

Under that agreement, the EU would lift all levies on U.S.

goods, and in exchange, the U.S.

would drop its tariffs on EU imports to 15%.

The European Parliament was supposed to move forward on that next week, but instead the bloc is now expected to vote Wednesday to put the deal on hold and may even take additional steps as well.

Some think this fracture could threaten not just trade relationships with Europe, but the NATO military alliance as well.

Here was former Vice President Mike Pence on CNN yesterday.

I do think that the current posture, which which I hope will change and abate, does threaten to fracture that strong relationship, not just with Denmark, but with all of our NATO allies.

Now, this massive turnabout happened because on Saturday, Trump threatened to put up to 25 percent tariffs on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Finland because Denmark has refused U.S.

offers to buy Greenland.

Now, European leaders have begun to not openly but implicitly compare President Trump's desire for Greenland to Putin's desire for Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement, quote, no intimidation or threat will influence us neither in Ukraine nor in Greenland nor anywhere else in the world when we are confronted with such situations.

Well, it appears that military action has been ruled out, but administration officials are just as stubborn on this.

Treasury Secretary Scott Besson appeared on NBC News on Sunday and said that it's actually continued Danish ownership of Greenland that is the real threat to NATO.

Meanwhile, critics have pointed out that the United States and Denmark already have a treaty in place in which the U.S.

may build whatever military installations it wants in Greenland already.

Yeah, it appears that Trump is not quite through with Iran yet.