Describing Greenland as a "big block of ice" - at times confusing it with Iceland - he warned Denmark, "you can say no, but we will remember." In a long and meandering speech, constant reminders to the NATO allies too - including the UK - that without the US, they were nothing.
The crisis created, not yet fully passed. Trump used his platform at Davos to take a series of swipes at Europe and Canada, complaining that they weren't being grateful enough to the United States.
In a speech lasting more than an hour he decried green energy policies and claimed that the people of Europe were "destroying themselves". But there was some relief at least that Mr Trump ruled out the idea of using "excessive force" to seize Greenland.
Can the fractures splintering through the old world order be fixed?
