00:00Fact-checking Donald Trump's Davos Speech
00:02In a much-anticipated speech, US President Donald Trump made a number of sweeping claims at Davos 2026,
00:14many of which were not based in truth.
00:16After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark.
00:22How stupid were we to do that?
00:24But we did it.
00:26But we gave it back.
00:27While the US assumed responsibility for Greenland's defence during World War II,
00:32this didn't affect Denmark's sovereignty over the island, so Washington had nothing to give back.
00:38Denmark listed Greenland as a non-self-governing territory with the UN after the war,
00:43effectively acknowledging its colonial status.
00:46Despite different attempts by the US to purchase Greenland over the decades,
00:50Washington formally recognised Denmark's sovereignty over the territory in a 1951 defence agreement.
00:56So other presidents have spent, whether foolishly or not, trillions and trillions of dollars on NATO
01:02and gotten absolutely nothing in return. We've never asked for anything.
01:07It's always a one-way street.
01:08It's wrong to imply that NATO hasn't done anything for the US and never would.
01:13To date, it's the only country to have ever invoked the Alliance's Article 5 mutual defence measure,
01:18which it did in the aftermath of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
01:22NATO came to the US's aid in a variety of ways, such as enhancing intelligence sharing,
01:28providing increased security to US facilities, and launching its first ever anti-terror operation.
01:34As for NATO contributions, official figures show that the US was contributing about 16% to its common budget
01:40between 2024 and 2025, nowhere near 100%.
01:44And estimates put the US's defence spending at around 65% to 70% of the Alliance's total.
01:51A large majority for sure, but certainly not all of it.
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