US stock futures turned up as Trump rules out invading Greenland after calling for negotiations. S&P 500 futures up 0.39%; Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.3%; Dow futures up 0.16%.

“People thought I would use force. I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force,” Trump says at Davos.

Trump says he won’t use force to claim Greenland. That will come as a relief for the Danes, but they will take little comfort given his obvious determination to own the island.

“We never asked for anything and we never got anything, we probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly unstoppable, but I won’t do that,” he said.

“That’s probably the biggest statement I made, because people thought I would use force,” he said. “I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.”

Truth be told, tariffs are a form of economic force. The implication here is he won’t deploy the US military.

Trump’s call to start negotiations over acquiring Greenland comes just a week after JD Vance and Marco Rubio agreed with Denmark and Greenland to establish a high-level working group aimed at a diplomatic resolution.

Danish and Greenlandic officials have made clear that US ownership of Greenland is off the table. Denmark has repeatedly argued that the US does not need to own Greenland to achieve national security goals. A decades-old treaty already allows the US to freely use the territory for defense purposes.