Donald Trump warned on Thursday of “major retaliation” if European countries start selling US debt securities or stocks to put pressure on the United States.
Speaking in an interview with Fox Business from Davos, the US President said, “If that happened, we would launch major retaliation, and we hold all the cards.”
The statement follows heightened tensions over Greenland and Trump’s threats against US allies, which have unsettled American markets, including the bond market closely monitored by the White House.
A Swedish pension fund, Alecta, disclosed on Wednesday that it had sold most of its US Treasury bonds due to concerns over the fragility of US public finances.
Earlier, Danish pension fund AkademikerPension announced on Tuesday that it had sold all its US Treasury holdings, citing “poor health of US public finances”.
Another Danish pension fund, Pædagogernes Pensionskasse (PBU), revealed plans to sell American government bonds in a statement aired by Danish broadcaster TV2.
European NATO countries collectively hold over $2 trillion in US debt securities, a figure that rises to approximately $3 trillion when including Canada, another frequent target of Trump’s criticism.
