President Trump has doubled down on threats to take control of Greenland. He will partly use a trip to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland to further press his case amid deep European skepticism.

President Trump has exaggerated threats to Greenland from Russia and China and downplayed the country's current defenses, according to local officials and experts on the Arctic.

"All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland, where we already had it as a trustee, but respectfully returned it back to Denmark not long ago," Trump said.

During a speech Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, President Trump said that he would not use force to take Greenland, an island the State Department says the United States needs to control to counter threats in the surrounding Arctic sea by Russia and China.

President Trump on Wednesday sent a message to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, telling him that his country “lives because of the United States,” days after the prime minister defended Greenland against Trump’s effort to acquire the island territory.

Why does Trump want to take over? How big is Greenland compared to the United States? What you need to know about the autonomous territory of Denmark.

Greenland's rare earth deposits and Arctic shipping lanes become focal points of U.S.-China-Russia competition as melting ice opens new trade routes and Beijing seeks regional leverage.

Greenlanders may take some comfort in President Donald Trump’s announcement on January 21st that he had agreed to “the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland”. What that means for his ambition to make the island part of the United States remains unclear.