“I think it would be very unwise,” Bessent told reporters on the first day of the World Economic Forum.

He said Trump wanted control of the autonomous Danish territory because he considers it a “strategic asset” and “we are not going to outsource our hemispheric security to anyone else”.

Asked about Trump’s message to Norway’s prime minister, in which he appeared to link his Greenland push to not winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Bessent said: “I don’t know anything about the president’s letter to Norway.”

He added, however, that “I think it’s a complete canard that the president will be doing this because of the Nobel Prize”.

Trump said at the weekend that, from Feb 1, Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden would be subject to a 10% tariff on all goods sent to the United States until Denmark agrees to cede Greenland.

The announcement has drawn angry charges of “blackmail” from the US allies, and Germany’s vice chancellor Lars Klingbeil said Monday that Europe was preparing countermeasures.