Bessent calls Denmark ‘irrelevant,’ shrugs off – Business News
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent known as Denmark “irrelevant” Wednesday as he shrugged off issues about a US Treasury sell-off following President Trump’s heightened threats to annex Greenland.
The “sell America” impact shook international markets Tuesday within the first day of trading after Trump introduced new 10% tariffs – set to take impact Feb. 1 and later bounce to 25% – on a number of European allies against his efforts to take over Greenland. The levies would come on high of the US’ baseline 15% tariff on most European items.
Stocks nosedived, bond costs tumbled and Treasury yields jumped as buyers panicked over heated geopolitical tensions and a potential retreat amongst European buyers in US authorities bonds.
“Denmark’s investment in US Treasury bonds, like Denmark itself, is irrelevant,” Bessent advised reporters during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday known as Denmark “irrelevant” as he shrugged off issues about a US Treasury sell-off. AP
“That is less than $100 million. They’ve been selling Treasurys for years, I’m not concerned at all,” he added.
“This notion that Europeans would be selling US assets came from a single analyst at Deutsche Bank,” Bessent mentioned, including that it was amplified by “the fake news media.”
The Jan. 18 word from George Saravelos, Deutsche’s international head of FX analysis, said that the “US has one key weakness: it relies on others to pay its bills via large external deficits.”
European international locations owned roughly $8 trillion of US bonds and equities, in accordance with the word.
“In an environment where the geoeconomic stability of the western alliance is being disrupted existentially, it is not clear why Europeans would be as willing to play this part,” Saravelos wrote.
Bessent claimed the CEO of Deutsche Bank known as him to distance the bank from the word, saying he “does not stand by that analyst report.”
Trump has zeroed in on Greenland as a result of of its strategic location between North America and the Arctic, which makes it the proper spot for overseeing delivery routes and army assaults. AP
Deutsche Bank didn’t instantly reply to The Post’s request for remark.
A spokesperson for the bank advised a number of retailers that the company doesn’t sometimes touch upon “potential communication between the bank and government representatives.”
Bessent blamed the upper Treasury yields on a Japanese bond sell-off that happened Tuesday afternoon and “spilled over to other markets.” That sell-off was reportedly fueled by fears of fiscal overreach from the Japanese authorities.
Bessent claimed the US has seen “record foreign investment” in its Treasurys.
Here’s the most recent on Trump’s negotiations with Greenland
Trump says he has zeroed in on Greenland as a result of of its strategic location between North America and the Arctic, which he argues makes it the proper spot for overseeing delivery routes and army assaults.
The president contends the US must take over the island for national security issues, repeatedly hinting at potential threats from Russia and China.
“We are asking our allies to understand that Greenland needs to be part of the United States,” Bessent mentioned Wednesday.
Greenlanders have pushed back onerous, marching in protests in pink caps that learn “Make America Go Away,” a mocking tackleTrump’s MAGA slogan. Politicians in Greenland have additionally spoken out towards the concept.
Greenlanders have pushed back onerous, marching in protests in pink caps that learn “Make America Go Away.” MADS CLAUS RASMUSSEN/EPA/Shutterstock
The final time the US purchased land from Denmark was the sale of the US Virgin Islands — together with the one that will turn into late financier and intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous “Epstein Island.”
Bessent mentioned the 1917 sale of the US Virgin Islands confirmed the US “understood” the islands’ significance.
“President Trump has made it clear that we will not outsource our national security or our hemispheric security to any other countries,” Bessent mentioned. “Our accomplice, the UK, is letting us down with the bottom on Diego Garcia, which we had shared collectively for a lot of, a few years, and they wish to flip it over to Mauritius. So, President Trump is critical right here.
“Just as I said after ‘Liberation Day’ last year, I would tell everyone, ‘Take a deep breath, do not have this reflexive anger that we’ve seen, and this bitterness.’ Why don’t they sit down and wait for President Trump to get here and listen to his argument, because I think they are going to be persuaded.”
