US treasury secretary cuts awkward figure as Trump’s diplomatic defender

Scott Bessent's maladroit efforts to calm European anger and Americans' puzzlement over Greenland have fallen flat

• Trump steps up demand to annex Greenland in rebuke to Europe's leaders

Scott Bessent has gained a reputation as one of Donald Trump's suavest enablers but his dismissal of Denmark as irrelevant" is likely to earn him a place in the annals of infamy rather than diplomacy.

The US treasury secretary's tactless put-down of a Nato ally has come as the annual world economic forum at Davos has cast him into the international limelight at the very moment when Trump is upping the ante to take over Greenland, which is Danish sovereign territory.