Donald Trump spent the night detonating a series of private messages with world leaders on Truth Social.

The posts came fast and furious. First, the private text messages—Trump leaking direct communications from Emmanuel Macron. Then the visuals: a provocative map casually absorbing Canada and Greenland into the United States, as if sovereignty were just a design suggestion. And finally, the main event: a full-frontal attack on Keir Starmer and the UK government.

Publishing private messages from Macron is an extraordinary breach of diplomatic norms. Posting a map that erases Canada’s sovereignty is even more incendiary. Good morning, Canada. You’re American now. Apparently.

Trump zeroed in on the Chagos Islands deal, branding it an “act of great stupidity”—a phrase that landed like a grenade in Westminster. A long-simmering controversy was instantly reheated, and Starmer found himself newly exposed to opposition MPs who have spent years waiting for this exact opening. Champagne corks among Conservatives were no doubt popped.

What matters here is not just the rhetoric, but the strategy behind it.

Trump is very clearly trying to pressure the UK by going hostile on Chagos, and he doesn’t even bother hiding the linkage. In his posts, Chagos and Greenland are part of the same storyline. The message couldn’t be clearer if it were stitched onto a red baseball cap: fall into line on Greenland, or pay the price elsewhere. Coercive diplomacy—but make it public, messy, and algorithm-friendly.

Downing Street, however, is not blinking. Call it stiff upper lip, or call it damage control—but the line is holding.

Last night, I was told it is “highly unlikely” Trump will change his mind on Greenland. After all, he knows that European leaders “can’t protect” Greenland.

Trump is increasingly furious that European allies are standing firm on Greenland and are prepared to stare down his threats—even with tariffs hovering ominously in the background. That resistance comes as another Trump passion project, the so-called Board of Peace, is falling flat. The President is reportedly demanding $1 billion for membership in a club critics say looks suspiciously designed to sideline the United Nations. Against that backdrop, Starmer is said to have decided not to attend Davos, given the total absence of any realistic prospect for resolution—or even a grand multilateral moment—on the two biggest issues facing the UK and EU: Greenland and Ukraine.

France, according to AFP, plans to reject the invitation outright, citing concerns about undermining “the principles and structure of the United Nations.” But Trump says he does not care, Macron is anyway going to be out of power in a few months. The UK, meanwhile, is said to have “severe reservations” about the legal framework of the Peace Board. Translation: hard pass.

Trump turning on Starmer after months of careful relationship-building is undeniably a blow. It raises uncomfortable questions about whether any alternative approach could ever have worked—or whether this ending was baked in from the start.

Put it all together and the picture is stark. Among allies, a consensus is forming that Trump is becoming almost impossible to deal with.

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Ksenija Pavlovic is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Pavlovic Today, The Chief White House Correspondent. Pavlovic was a Teaching Fellow and Doctoral Fellow in the Political Science department at...

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