Donald Trump took to the stage in Davos and began his speech by criticising Europe and making many claims about what he’s done in his first year as President.
The US president delivered a lengthy address to the World Economic Forum, where he touched on Greenland, investment and how he ‘ended eight wars’.
His remarks are under intense scrutiny on the world stage, as tensions with Greenland and NATO increase as Trump aims to ‘buy’ the Danish territory.
Metro has fact-checked many of the President’s claims and looked into others he shared on the world stage.
America ‘gave back’ Greenland to Denmark
One of Trump’s claims was that the United States ‘gave Greenland back to Denmark’ – which is misleading.
The United States has never owned or had the right to own Greenland. It was first colonised by Denmark in the 1700s, and since the 1930s, it’s had sovereignty over Greenland.
Trump may have been alluding to the brief period of time when the US took over Greenland’s defence during World War Two, which saw them build military bases on the island.
But after the war ended, the responsibility for Greenland went back to Denmark – something which the US accepted.
‘China has no wind farms’
Trump told Davos: ‘China makes almost all of the windmills, and yet, I haven’t been able to find any wind farms in China.’
This is wrong.
China ranks number one globally for wind farm capacity and has more plans to expand its capabilities than any other country.
Trump says the US has ‘never gotten anything from NATO’
This is not true.
The US had military aid from NATO nations, who went to war in Afghanistan after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Following the attack, the UK contacted the US and suggested declaring an Article 5 contingency would be a useful political statement for NATO to make.
It was the only time NATO had invoked Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, which defines the ‘casus foederis’, otherwise known as its collective defence clause.
It means each member state must consider an armed attack against one member state to be an armed attack against them all.
If such an attack happens, each member state must then assist by taking ‘such action as [the member state] deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area’.
Trump secured ‘$18 trillion’ in investment
This is false.
Figures from the White House show that since Trump re-entered office, $9.6 trillion has been allocated for new investment – the President has exaggerated the true number.
The President ‘ended eight wars’
Kind of.
Trump did have a hand in peace agreements between many countries, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Israel, India and Pakistan.
But violence in many of these regions has persisted even after peace accords, which Trump was involved in, were agreed upon.
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