No evidence for Trump’s $18tn investment claimpublished at 18:09 GMT 21 January

18:09 GMT 21 January

By Lucy Gilder

In his Davos address, President Trump spoke about the investments his administration had secured for America.

He said “we’ve secured commitments for a record-breaking 18 trillion dollars” and later on repeated “18 trillion dollars is invested”.

He has made similar claims before - in October he said the US had attracted investments worth $17tn (£12.7tn) - but there is no publicly available evidence to support figures this big.

A White House website, last updated in November, aims to track “new investment in U.S. manufacturing, technology, and infrastructure”. It states that investments under Trump total $9.6tn (£7.1tn), external.

The biggest amount on the list is a $1.4tn (£1tn) investment in manufacturing and industry by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The website for the UAE embassy in Washington DC says the UAE is “working with the Trump Administration to make a historic $1.4 trillion investment in the US, external over the next decade”.

Greg Auclair, a statistician at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told BBC Verify the White House tracker “includes pledges that may not materialize - for example the EU trade deal now appears frozen due to Greenland tensions”.

He argues that although there has been an uptick in foreign investment in the US under Trump, “it will take several years before the results of the Trump administration's investment push become clear. Some pledges have a 10-year horizon. Some are shorter. Some have no horizon at all.”

Image source, PA Media

Nigel Farage says the world would be a "better, more secure place" if America owned Greenland - but accepted this did not correspond with his belief in national self-determination.

Speaking in Davos, the Reform UK leader - who has a friendly relationship with President Trump - said a "strong America" in Greenland was better for Nato because of "the geopolitics of the High North... the retreating ice caps... the continued expansionism of Russian icebreakers [and] of Chinese investment".

But he added: "If you believe in Brexit, and if you believe in celebrating America's 250th birthday, if you believe in the nation states and not globalist structures, you believe in sovereignty.

"And if you believe in sovereignty, you believe in the principle of national self-determination."

Farage also said he agreed "strategically" with Donald Trump's arguments, but added "you must respect the rights and views of the Greenlanders, because that is what national self-determination is."

Is the US paying for 'virtually all of Nato'?published at 17:41 GMT 21 January

17:41 GMT 21 January

Image source, Getty Images

By Gerry Georgieva

President Trump claimed that "the United States was paying for virtually 100% of Nato", as he said Nato countries had historically not been spending 2% of their GDP on defence but that he had now got them to pay 5%.

"They didn't pay the 2% and now they're paying the 5%," Trump said.

Neither of these claims is correct.

In recent years US spending on defence, external accounted for about 70% of the total spent by Nato countries.

In 2024, that went down to 65% and, in 2025, it's estimated to have been 62%, as all Nato members were set to have spent at least 2% of their GDP on defence for the first time.

Nato countries did commit to spending more but the 5% that Trump is talking about is a long-term aim - to be achieved by 2035, external.

Currently, no Nato member spends that much as even Poland – the country spending the most of its GDP on defence – is estimated to have spent just below 4.5% in 2025.

Bernd Lange told a news conference that Trump's threat to slap new tariffs on European countries had broken the EU-US trade deal.

Lange, who chairs the European Parliament’s committee on international trade, acknowledged that freezing the deal risked angering Trump.

In a post on X, Lange said the deal was "on ice indefinitely", adding that "our sovereignty and territorial integrity are at stake" and "business as usual" is impossible.

There is "no alternative" but to suspend the approval of a EU-US trade deal due to the US's "continued and escalating threats" over Greenland, the chair of the European Parliament's international trade committee has confirmed.

Bernd Lange says by threatening the "territorial integrity and sovereignty of an EU member state" and by using "tariffs as a coercive instrument, the US is undermining the stability and predictability of EU-US trade relations".

Following a meeting of representatives, Lange says the parliament has decided to suspend work on the trade deal "until the US decides to re-engage on a path of cooperation rather than confrontation".

He recently spoke to the press over the matter - we'll bring you the key lines.

Trade tensions between the US and Europe had eased since the two sides struck the trade deal at Trump's Turnberry golf course in Scotland in July.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, EPA

Greenland's government has released guidelines for members of the public in the event that the country is hit by a crisis.

The guidelines offer advice for households on how to manage for five days if there are long or short term power outages. They also cover areas such as drinking water, food, medicine, heating and communication in the event of a crisis.

The advice has been prepared to "strengthen the security of the population" and to "ensure that society's overall preparedness is even stronger", says Greenland minister Peter Borg.

"This is not an expression that we expect a crisis," he says.

Image source, Reuters

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen has welcomed Trump's assurance that the US "won't use force" to take Greenland, but says the US president's speech shows his ambitions are still "intact".

Speaking to reporters in Copenhagen, Rasmussen said it was "positive" Trump was ruling out the use of the military, but added that in itself wouldn't make the issue "go away".

Danish media has reported Rasmussen also said Denmark was keeping to the agreement made last week in Washington to continue talks between the nations on Arctic security.

If Putin had been in the audience at Davos he may have applaudedpublished at 16:51 GMT 21 January

16:51 GMT 21 January

Steve Rosenberg
Russia editor

We didn't hear anything particularly new from Donald Trump on Ukraine during his Davos speech, but it's clear the president is still pushing for a peace deal.

His special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are due to travel to Moscow tomorrow for talks with Vladimir Putin.

Much of Trump's speech was met with stony silence in the hall, but perhaps if Putin had been sitting there he would've been applauding.

Most of President Trump's criticism was directed not at Moscow but at European leaders and at Nato, and that is always music to the Kremlin's ears.

Russia welcomes the strains and stresses on the Western alliance that the Greenland saga has been causing.

Earlier we reported that Donald Trump said he was planning to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, it's now been clarified this is due to happen tomorrow.

Zelensky is in Kyiv today, his office has said, and they have not yet confirmed the location of the meeting.

The Ukrainian president had originally planned to be at the World Economic Forum, but cancelled his visit on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are heading to Russia on Thursday to discuss the war in Ukraine.

Trump shows he's not ready to compromise on Greenlandpublished at 16:25 GMT 21 January

16:25 GMT 21 January

Sarah Smith
North America editor

There may have been an audible sigh of relief around the world when President Trump said he will not use excessive strength or force to take over Greenland. But that should be tempered with the realisation that he is deeply serious about his intention to own the territory.

In his speech he laid out, for the first time, a considered case for why he thinks it essential that he do so.

He not only described why Greenland’s key geographic location - situated in the Arctic, and of strategic interest to the US, Russia and China - needs to be defended.

He also claimed that it is in "our hemisphere", called it "our territory" and that it is "part of North America".

Those are not the words of someone ready to compromise or settle for anything less than outright ownership.

His speech was also laced with the familiar sense of grievance that so often drives Donald Trump. He complained that the US had had to rescue Greenland during World War Two and said America should never have given Greenland back to Denmark, which is now being "ungrateful".

He moaned about how much money America has contributed to the Nato alliance, which he thinks the US has never been thanked for. And he said that he was not sure that other Nato countries would come to America's defence if required to.

There are many reasons why President Trump views Greenland as desirable, or even essential. National security is obviously one of them. The prospect of leaving a legacy of having expanded the size of the United States is clearly another.

The opportunity to address his resentment over the perceived lack of respect for both himself and his country's role in providing defence for its allies should not be overlooked as a motivating factor.

You can read our post fact-checking Trump's claims about Greenland in World War Two here

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

US special envoy Steve Witkoff has told CNBC he is heading to Russia with US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner tomorrow to discuss "land deals" over Ukraine.

A Kremlin spokesperson confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to meet with Witkoff, according to Russian news agency TASS.

During his speech at the World Economic Forum, Trump said he believes both President Zelensky and Putin want to make a deal and that they are "stupid" if they don't get one done.

As we've reported, Trump has said he's planning to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of Davos.

Does the UK take 92% of North Sea oil revenue?published at 15:53 GMT 21 January

15:53 GMT 21 January

Image source, PA Media

By Nicholas Barrett

Referring to the UK and North Sea oil, President Trump said: "They make it impossible for the oil companies to go, they take 92% of the revenues."

Oil and gas firms operating in the North Sea pay a 30% corporation tax on their profits and a supplementary 10% rate on top of that. This is higher than the 25% corporation tax paid by other large companies.

In November 2024, the government raised the windfall tax on oil and gas companies from 35% to 38%.

That takes the total tax on North Sea Oil to 78%, which is paid on profits not revenue.

The windfall tax, which was introduced by the Conservative government in 2022 as a response to rising energy bills, is due to expire in 2030.

Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent

Donald Trump generated headlines with his comments about Greenland at Davos - but on several occasions he appeared to confuse the name of the island in question.

Speaking of how perceptions of him had been good in Europe and among Nato allies, Trump said: "Until the last few days, when I told them about Iceland, they loved me."

He then said Nato was not there for the US – "and Iceland, I can tell you".

Later, discussing how the US stock marked had dipped after his recent threats to use military force in Greenland, he said: "The stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland.

"So Iceland's already cost us a lot of money, but that dip is peanuts compared to what it's gone up."

Did the US 'give' Greenland back to Denmark after World War Two?published at 15:38 GMT 21 January

15:38 GMT 21 January

Image source, Getty Images

By Tom Edgington

As we've been reporting, Trump spoke extensively about wanting to start negotiations to acquire Greenland, despite the island in the Arctic being owned by Denmark.

Talking about World War Two, he said "after the war we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that?"

But it wasn’t America’s to give back.

In 1933 an international court - a predecessor to the International Court of Justice - ruled that Greenland belonged to Denmark, rejecting a competing claim from Norway, external.

In 1941 - during World War Two - the US and Denmark signed an agreement, external allowing the US to defend Greenland to prevent Nazi Germany from taking it over.

This led to the construction of US bases on the island as well as the deployment of US troops.

However, the agreement did not involve a transfer of sovereignty, meaning Greenland never became US territory.

The year after the war, the then US Secretary of State James Byrnes offered to buy the island for $100m in gold bullion, worth roughly $1.5bn (£1.3bn) today.

That offer was turned down.

A difficult dilemma for Europepublished at 15:30 GMT 21 January

15:30 GMT 21 January

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

America's Nato allies in Europe are facing a difficult and dangerous dilemma when it comes to how to respond to Donald Trump’s determination to acquire Greenland.

Diplomacy, so far, has not worked.

The Foreign Ministers of Denmark and Greenland returned empty-handed from talks in Washington.

So now there’s talk of the need to get tough with Trump, with French President Macron and German Chancellor Merz mooting, albeit reluctantly, the possibility of reciprocal trade sanctions on US imports.

But while this may just conceivably achieve a US climbdown, it is also playing with fire.

Make no mistake, Western defence and security is still massively dependent on the US.

Whether it's the US providing the lion’s share of secret intelligence to the Five Eyes alliance (US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand), or the servicing and maintenance of the UK's Trident missiles that carry Britain’s nuclear deterrent, the US is just about indispensable to UK and Nato security.

In President Trump's current mode, there is no knowing just how far he is prepared to go if he doesn't get what he wants.

Daniel Bush
Washington Correspondent

President Donald Trump said that he would meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at Davos.

It is not clear when this will happen.

"The president is in Kyiv," Zelensky's adviser Dmytro Lytvyn told journalists, just moments after Trump told the forum the two leaders might meet later today and that Zelensky may even be "in the audience".

Trump called on Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, saying that the countries were in position to strike a deal.

"You’ve got to get this deal done. Too many people are dying. Its not worth it," Trump said in a question and answer session after his official remarks at the Davos forum.

"If they don’t get this done they are stupid," Trump said of Zelensky and Putin.

When asked what kind of a deal he sees happening between the US and Denmark, Trump says it is "costing Denmark hundreds of millions a year" to run Greenland.

"It's very expensive, a very big piece of ice," Trump says, reiterating that it's important for national and international security.

Owning Greenland could, the president suggests, "create a power that will make it impossible for the bad guys to do anything against the perceived good ones".

"We'll see what happens," Trump says.

He repeats his earlier accusation that Nato treats the US badly, adding that it is "time for them to step up".

Image source, EPA

If you’re just joining us, US President Donald Trump has just finished his speech to world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Trump told the room he would not use force in Greenland - but also launched a long argument for why the US should own the island:

• Greenland: Trump said he was seeking "immediate negotiations" to acquire Greenland from Denmark: "It's the United States alone that can protect this giant mass of land, this giant piece of ice"
• Force: But, calling it his biggest statement, he said he would not use force. "I don't have to use force. I don't want to use force. I won't use force"
• Nato: He dismissed claims that a Greenland takeover would hurt Nato, adding: "We give so much and we get so little in return"
• Economy: The US is experiencing an "economic miracle" under his presidency, he claimed, saying inflation was down, with economic growth that "perhaps no country has ever seen before"
• Tariffs: He put that economic performance partly down to raising tariffs on foreign nations "to pay for the damage they've caused"
• Europe: At the start of his speech, he accused the continent of "not heading in the right way" due to "ever increasing government spending, unchecked mass migration and endless foreign imports"
• Migration: Saying Europe was introducing "entirely different populations from far away lands", he said: "Certain places in Europe are not even recognisable, frankly, anymore"
• Ukraine: The president said: "I'm dealing with President Putin and he wants to make a deal, I believe. I'm dealing with President Zelensky and I think he wants to make a deal. I'm meeting him today"
• Environment: He referred throughout his speech to the "Green New Scam", which he called the "greatest hoax in history". He added: "You’re supposed to make money with energy, not lose money"
• UK energy: And on the UK specifically, he said: "The United Kingdom produces just one-third of the total energy from all sources that it did in 1999... and they're sitting on top of the North Sea, one of the greatest reserves anywhere in the world. But they don't use it - and that's one reason why their energy has reached catastrophically low levels, with equally high prices"

Trump's throwaway comments on Denmark will leave Danes unimpressedpublished at 15:06 GMT 21 January

15:06 GMT 21 January

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

Danes are watching Trump's speech closely, even if there's no-one from the government in the room in Davos.

What will probably matter most is his comment that the US won't use "excessive strength and force" - if it means he really is prepared to talk about the future of Greenland, which he referred to as "this piece of ice".

But some of his remarks on Denmark will have come across as frankly insulting, not least his throwaway remark about the defeat to Nazi Germany in 1940 in a matter of hours.

The problem with Nato, he told his audience, is that the US would be there for its allies, "but I'm not sure that they'd be there for us if we gave them the call".

In reality, many Nato allies did come to US aid after 9/11. Denmark was one of them and lost 44 soldiers in Afghanistan, proportionately more than any other ally other than the US. They also lost men alongside US forces in Iraq.

So Trump's words may sound like a limited form of climbdown, but many Danes will remain unimpressed.

Faisal Islam
Economics editor, reporting from Davos

Trump has just finished speaking – after an astonishing scrum to try to get into the room here at Davos.

People were turned away. Even heads of state. And the security has been unbelievable, with people – even some famous ones – not being let in or out of the hall.

Some of those queuing thought Trump would be a laying down the law of the new rules of the world economy.

Trump initially talked in friendly terms about the western allies that had been most perturbed by what they’d seen on his social media posts.

He even acknowledged that he probably shouldn’t speak about the controversial issue of Greenland.

Then, he announced he was seeking immediate negotiations for the USA to acquire Greenland.

A negotiated settlement he said. No force required. But the US needed "full title".

"We want this land" to build the "greatest Golden Dome ever built" he said.

He's now taking questions on the stage – watch it live.

Image source, Reuters