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Just as suddenly as it began, the Greenland crisis is over. President Trump ruled out using force to seize it, then canceled tariffs on Europe over it and said he’s fine with America not owning it. As Axios put it, “The immediate crisis appears defused in a way that allows virtually every party to claim a win—or at least take a breath.” Stocks surged; long-term bond yields fell.

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But what lasting damage has nato sustained?

We at the Trumpet have wondered whether January 16 was the death knell for the trans-Atlantic alliance. It may yet prove so.

nato Secretary General Mark Rutte hashed out “the framework of a future deal” with Trump, as the president put it. Reports conflict and details are scarce, but it appears to involve a permanent land lease to America. Trump had said that such an arrangement was unacceptable, but his team is still touting this as a victory. It’s possible that his saber-rattling was all a ploy to secure mineral rights, which he may have achieved.

Meanwhile, European leaders are still reeling after the ride President Trump took them on this past week. As EuroIntelligence wrote, “This is not a done deal yet, and it leaves behind a wrecked trans-Atlantic relationship that will struggle to recover from this episode. … It will not be forgotten that Trump threatened military action against a nato member.” Not a crowning moment for a man so fervidly seeking a legacy as a peacemaker.

Until now, Europe’s leaders have been cautious and pandering to President Trump. The Greenland kerfuffle uncovered some steel. They recognize that niceties only get you so far with this unpredictable man. A shrewder, tougher strategy is needed—and a long-term plan to decouple.

An idea gaining ground in high circles, EuroIntelligence reported, is “nato, but European, without the U.S.”

It’s a moonshot. President Trump certainly feels he holds all the cards. Europe’s dependence on America, especially America’s military, is deep. Everyone wants to break away from it, but nobody knows how.

It seems impossible. But Bible prophecy says it’s inevitable. Not only will Europe separate itself, but it will also turn on America in a shocking betrayal. nato is doomed. And this abrupt feud over Greenland may have done more than expose its unreliability—it may have marked its demise.

Will the Board of Peace Fight Itself?

United States President Donald Trump hosted an inauguration ceremony yesterday for his Board of Peace in Davos, Switzerland, while attending the World Economic Forum. A look at the inaugural list of members indicates that conflict has been sown into the board from its founding.

• Originally formed as a governing body for Gaza after ousting the Hamas terrorist regime, the organization’s scope has been broadened to the entirety of the volatile Middle East and around the world in conjunction with the United Nations.

Signatories include Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, Israel, Kosovo, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam. It’s a motley assemblage:

• The United Arab Emirates has a history of sponsoring wars throughout the Middle East, including the current civil war in Sudan.
• Qatar has used its cash and diplomatic leverage to sponsor terrorism, endanger Israel and simultaneously infiltrate high levels of the U.S. government—and it is considering deploying troops to Gaza.
• Turkey is a long-standing adversary of Israel that has repeatedly sponsored Palestinian terrorists and is pushing to deploy Turkish troops to Gaza after Hamas falls and Israel Defense Forces leave.
• Israel has insisted that some of Turkey’s and Qatar’s demands (like placing their soldiers in Gaza) are completely unacceptable.

Other potential board members are perhaps even more concerning. Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted an invitation to join, although Putin has not yet confirmed this. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada would also join after scrutinizing some of the details, even as he lambasted President Trump during his speech at Davos and declared the U.S.-led world order to be over.

President Trump often boasts of having brought lasting peace to several conflicts. His actual record is spottier than advertised:

• He said he would end Russia’s war in Ukraine within 24 hours of his inauguration; it still rages 366 days later.
• He said he would bring peace to the Middle East, but nations there are still sponsoring terrorism, Hamas is still armed and controls territory in Gaza, Sudan is still mired in civil war, and Syria is still ethnically cleansing its minorities.
• Ceasefires that the U.S. helped broker between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, and between Thailand and Cambodia, fell apart almost immediately.

The Trumpet featured President Trump’s foreign-policy weakness as our May-June 2025 cover story, with executive editor Stephen Flurry writing, “His efforts to become a ‘peacemaker and unifier’ are hampered by a fatal flaw.” This failed approach to peacemaking will sink the grand ambitions of the Board of Peace.

Will the EU Survive 2026?

“We have entered a time of great-power politics,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said today in Davos. “This new world of great powers is being built on power, on strength, and—when it comes to it—on force. It’s not a cozy place.” He urged Europe to respond accordingly and added:

Our power today rests on three pillars: our security, our competitiveness and our unity.

However, Europe remains plagued by divisions that seem to be nearing a breaking point.

• When U.S. President Donald Trump went so far as to threaten military action for annexing Greenland from Denmark, only a few European nations actively opposed him. On January 16, seven nations sent troops to Greenland, and Trump threatened to impose tariffs on them.
• Trump has backed down for now. This can be seen as a huge victory for Europe. However, if the trade war had escalated, Europe’s divisions would have rendered most of its threats ineffective.

On the same day that Trump announced his tariffs, the EU signed the largest trade agreement in history with the mercosur bloc. However, despite the prospect of a trade war with the U.S., a majority of EU parliamentarians voted for a controversial resolution that could delay the agreement by sending it to the European Court of Justice for review. As Spiegel wrote:

The powerful signal that [European Commission President Ursula] von der Leyen wanted to send from Europe to the world, with which she wanted to defy the attacks from Washington, is now at best a flicker.

Merz acknowledged this as a setback, saying: “I deeply regret that the European Parliament has put another obstacle in our way yesterday. But rest assured: We will not be stopped.”

The mercosur deal can still go into effect provisionally—perhaps even faster than if the European Parliament had approved the deal yesterday. However, this division is haunting Europe.

Prophecy says: While some believe European unification will be weak at best, the Bible reveals that it will forge a smaller, much stronger union. The mercosur deal itself will likely help bring this about. In 2019, Mr. Flurry wrote:

If this massive trade deal is finalized this year, then I believe we will see the current 28-nation European Union pared down to the prophesied 10-nation superpower this year as well. Before Europe can be closely tied to Latin America, something will have to change. The current politically and religiously disunified EU will have to become a politically, militarily and religiously unified Holy Roman Empire.

This union is prophesied in Daniel 2 and Revelation 17. Though certain divisions will persist, it will have the power of a beast to cause unprecedented damage, destruction and death. Read more in Mr. Flurry’s article “America Is Being Besieged Economically.”

IN OTHER NEWS

Russia preparing its children for modern warfare: High school students across Russia will learn how to assemble and control drones as part of a mandatory new course on national security, Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported on Wednesday. “Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Motherland” also requires classrooms to be equipped with mock weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles, Makarov pistols and hand grenades. The curriculum includes instruction on post-graduation military enlistment, along with classes on the penalties for failing to comply with conscription laws. This is yet another sign that Ukraine is merely the opening salvo in Vladimir Putin’s biblically prophesied campaigns.

Former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi received the International Charlemagne Prize on January 17, an acknowledgment of his decades-long push for European unification. Named after the Frankish Emperor Charles the Great, the first ruler to unify Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the prize is awarded by a committee of individuals connected to Aachen, Germany, Charlemagne’s capital. Committee head Armin Laschet remarked, “Europe must not become a pawn of external powers in the face of overlapping geopolitical crises.” The prize is an endorsement of Draghi’s agenda to deepen Europe’s economic integration to better compete with China and the United States.

U.S. officially wants regime change in Cuba: The United States “is searching for Cuban government insiders who can help cut a deal to push out the Communist regime by the end of the year,” the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, citing senior U.S. officials. Targeting the regime of President Miguel Díaz-Canel comes as a record 1,660 Cubans were deported from the U.S. to Cuba in 2025, according to a December 19 Cuban government report. That’s roughly double the number from 2024, and more than the three previous U.S. presidents combined. Removing a Communist government on America’s doorstep would be a temporary blessing, but the U.S. should be wary of opening the door to an even greater adversary.

ice expanding to Maine: On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Catch of the Day to enforce immigration laws in Maine, a state with a sizable Somali population. According to Reuters, more than 100 federal agents arrived there this week. Coming after immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota and revelations of massive Somali fraud there, the operation in Maine expands the Trump administration’s crackdown on another Democrat-run state in an effort to stabilize America’s illegal immigration crisis.