SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
Few relationships in global politics are as enduring or as consequential as the alliance between the United States and Europe.
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UNIDENTIFIED NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: World attention centers on Washington as, in the state auditorium, representatives of 12 nations of Western Europe and North America assemble for the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty.
HARRY S TRUMAN: This treaty is a simple document. The nations which sign it agree to abide by the peaceful principles of the United Nations, to maintain friendly relations and economic cooperation with one another, to consult together whenever the territory or independence of any of them is threatened and to come to the aid of any one of them who may be attacked.
MCCAMMON: That was U.S. President Harry Truman speaking in 1949, as heard on the CBC. For decades, that promise of mutual support has underpinned NATO and shaped America's role, not just in Europe, but throughout the world.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We need it for national security. We have to have it.
MCCAMMON: But earlier this month, that relationship was pushed to the brink after President Trump set his sights again on Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.
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TRUMP: It's so strategic. Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security. And Denmark is not going to be able to do it, I can tell you.
MCCAMMON: These comments raised questions about sovereignty, diplomacy and the future of the alliance itself. In response, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers made a last-minute overseas trip. NPR congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt traveled to Denmark and watched those lawmakers take on the role of crisis diplomats.
BARBARA SPRUNT, BYLINE: They had this really tough job of trying to reassure allies that the U.S. broadly supports the idea of sovereignty and this long-standing partnership between these two countries - you know, NATO allies - while also, in the background, the president constantly undermining that very thesis. And so, like, that is a tough job to do on the best of days. And it was quite the weekend.
MCCAMMON: For this week's Reporter's Notebook, I wanted to ask Barbara what she saw on the ground and what this moment reveals about how America is being seen by some of its closest allies.
SPRUNT: So the first part of the trip really was, like, following them around to all these different engagements. And they had a tight schedule. You know, they took a Thursday night flight, and they got there Friday morning, and then they were, like, off to the races. And they met with the prime minister that day. They met with a parliamentary group of people from both Greenland and from Denmark, and that was interesting because we - there was a contingent of U.S. press there, and we got to go outside of one of the parliamentary rooms and wait for them to come out. Very familiar to covering Congress here in D.C. And then they came out and they did sort of a joint press conference.
MCCAMMON: You know, Barbara, we talked for this show while you were in Denmark...
SPRUNT: Yeah.
MCCAMMON: ...About what you were seeing on the ground, and you talked about kind of the difficult position that U.S. lawmakers found themselves in. What did you observe?
SPRUNT: Yeah. I mean, what a tightrope to walk. It was interesting 'cause I see them in a very particular light and role most of the time, which, you know, is as a legislator, and you have more partisanship come up in the nature of that on the Hill. This, as you said, like, they're working as - in a different role here as, like, crisis diplomats. And it's interesting because I felt like what I was hearing was a lot of measured tones from both them and from the politicians from Greenland and Denmark.
One thing that really stood out to me was, after that parliamentary meeting and they came out and spoke to the press, there were a few Greenlandic politicians who took questions and spoke with us, and they were very careful, I felt, in not trying to in any way attack President Trump or the White House. Someone even told me, like, it's really important not to demonize people, and, like, fighting it out on social media is never the way to solve things, you know, and, like, we really want to extend bridges and, you know, reach out our hand. And...
MCCAMMON: They were really trying to smooth this over.
SPRUNT: Really trying to smooth this over and emphasize that there is cooperation already between Greenland and Denmark and the United States. There's a treaty in place since 1951, I think, that gives the United States fairly broad access to Greenland. And the idea of strengthening Arctic security is something that they're all interested in and willing to partner with the United States on. And so I think it - to me, it felt like, wow, they're really worried because anything that rocks the boat here could have grave consequences. And they know the kind of administration that they're dealing with and how volatile it already is.
MCCAMMON: Now, as that trip was wrapping up, President Trump announced some new tariffs that were meant to put pressure on Denmark and other European allies to negotiate on Greenland. Then he reversed course...
SPRUNT: Yeah.
MCCAMMON: ...As he often does. How did that whiplash affect the way that you were reporting the story?
SPRUNT: I almost felt, Sarah, I was like, wow, you couldn't have written this as, like, a better scene in an Aaron Sorkin movie if you had tried. Like, the idea that there was this whole effort, this whole delegation that went all this way to try to reassure our allies and turn the temperature down, and then literally within hours of this press conference where they're talking about how successful it was and how there's work to do, but we're optimistic and we're building bridges, and then, you know, one social media post from the White House and it just completely feels like it's all undermined.
And of course, you know, as you said, like, he backtracked on that in the course of the week. And when I talked to people after that, just sort of on the ground, like, how they felt about the news, it was just a reminder, I think, of how frustrated people are, how much they don't really get a sense of, like, is this real? Is this not real? We feel really worried about what the consequences might be. But this, like, this volatility from the White House makes things just really, really tough for us to understand what's going on.
MCCAMMON: It's a massive departure from the way that the U.S. has historically, or for decades and decades since World War II, interacted with Europe. I mean, the thought of a conversation like this with Europe is - it would have been unthinkable.
SPRUNT: And this was one of the things that I didn't really expect until I got there. But there were two sort of, like, dynamics that I thought were interesting. One was exactly what you're talking about, about Europe itself, the idea that all of these people are talking about, you know, we've had this really close relationship with the United States, and now we're starting to wonder, should we back off because we can't rely on them? And should we turn towards Europe? And we saw that then play out in conversations in Davos at the World Economic Forum among leaders. So it was interesting to see that kind of bubbling up on the ground with people and then have it reflected in leaders themselves.
And the other thing that I'll say is the interesting dynamics between Greenland and Denmark, two places that have a very, you know, interesting, complicated history. And to have so many people from Greenland say, you know, we're not sure that we want to be Danish, you know? But we know we don't want to be American. I mean, it's actually kind of driving a closeness between Greenland and Denmark in this moment that I don't think you could have predicted 10 years ago.
MCCAMMON: Years ago, Barbara, during President Trump's first term, you traveled to Denmark. How did people receive you then, and how did your experience this last time compare?
SPRUNT: Yeah. You know, I had a weird situation when I went through customs in Denmark during Trump's first term. And when I gave my passport over, they said, are you here to buy Greenland? And I said...
MCCAMMON: A decade ago.
SPRUNT: I - 'cause he first floated this idea that the U.S. should own Greenland in his first term. And I said, no, I'm not here to buy Greenland. But he wasn't, like, joking. And then this time around, when I left customs - that's where all the things happen, I guess - the guy, the agent said, are you sad to be going back to the United States? And I looked at him. He goes, because it's the United States.
MCCAMMON: Wow.
SPRUNT: And I was like, you know, it is a reminder of the way in which people feel about the U.S. right now. You know, that's a - I felt like that was a kind of a bold comment and kind of telling about the way that they think about the U.S.
MCCAMMON: NPR's Barbara Sprunt, thanks for your reporting.
SPRUNT: Thank you, Sarah. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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