By Adam Cancryn, Kevin Liptak, CNN
Davos, Switzerland (CNN) — President Donald Trump’s winding, antagonistic speech to business moguls and government officials in the Swiss Alps on Wednesday was hardly a salve to concerns the Western Alliance is at its breaking point.
Trump complained relentlessly about the United States being taken advantage of by Europe, and wondered incredulously why his attempt to take control of Greenland was being met with resistance.
He castigated European leaders for making their continent unrecognizable through what he cast as uncontrolled migration and radical economic policies.
And he speculated aloud about NATO’s willingness to come to the defense of the United States, without mentioning that the one time the alliance invoked its collective defense treaty was at the request of the Americans after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Still, for European officials listening closely for a roadmap of how the rupture might unfold, there was one glimmer of conciliation. And that, at a crisis moment for transatlantic ties, was something.
Here are five takeaways from Trump’s speech to Davos.
Not taking Greenland by force
For European leaders listening anxiously to the president’s remarks on Greenland, there were four words in a speech of otherwise fiery rhetoric that mattered: “I won’t use force.”
It was the clearest statement yet from Trump that he would not attempt to seize Greenland using military might. Until Wednesday, the president had refused to rule it out, and the White House had said military options remained in play.
Taking it off the table will be a relief to officials who had been preparing for tense diplomatic confrontations with Trump to try and stave off a potential war. Markets responded positively, too, turning upward after a day of losses on Tuesday.
That’s not to suggest everything will be easy sailing going forward. Trump remained insistent that he would accept nothing less than full ownership Greenland — a semiautonomous territory of Denmark.
“This enormous unsecured island is actually part of North America,” Trump said. “That’s our territory.”
And he promised to remember those who opposed him.
“You can say no and we will remember,” he warned.
A historical argument
In reiterating his demand for control of Greenland — which he mistakenly called Iceland four times — Trump argued in Davos that “no nation or group of nations is in any position to be able to secure Greenland, other than the United States.”
“Every NATO ally has an obligation to be able to defend their own territory,” he said. “We’re a great power, much greater than people even understand.”
Trump went on to slam Denmark as “ungrateful” for refusing to relinquish control of Greenland, contending that the nation owed the US for defending it during World War II.
“Denmark fell to Germany after just six hours of fighting, and was totally unable to defend either itself or Greenland. So the United States was then compelled, and we did it,” he said, lamenting the US’ decision at the time to allow Denmark to retain Greenland as a territory.
“How stupid were we to do that?” he said. “But we did it, but we gave it back. But how ungrateful are they now?”
A far and wide airing of grievances
Trump also took aim at a range of other targets both old and new, at one point even belittling host country Switzerland as “only good because of us.” He recounted a past exchange with a Swiss leader over tariffs, boasting that he decided to increase his levy on the country after she “rubbed me the wrong way.”
“We have man