The ball is in the court of European leaders ahead of Thursday's emergency EU meeting in Brussels, writes Nick Beake.
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He may well have forgotten German is the most widely spoken of the four official languages in Switzerland.
Many people – from Brussels to Berlin to Paris – will have found his speech to be insulting, overbearing and inaccurate.
In it, he presented the idea that Europe is careering down the wrong path. That is a theme Trump has frequently explored, but it has a different impact when delivered on European soil to the faces of supposed friends and allies.
There is undoubtedly huge relief across Europe that the US president ruled out the use of military force to take Greenland at the forum in Davos.
But, even if he keeps his word, the fundamental problem remains that he wants a piece of land the owners say is not for sale.
Despite this, after the forum, Trump posted on social media that he was dropping his latest tariff threat against eight European countries he had ruled most guilty of thwarting his Arctic ambitions.
He claimed he had "formed the framework of a deal" for Greenland and the Arctic after a meeting with the Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte.
It is not clear how this plan would meet Trump's stated desire to own the island outright.
The proposed 10% taxes had been due to kick in from 1 February.
"What is quite clear after this speech is that the president's ambition remains intact," Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen told reporters in Copenhagen - before Trump posted his climbdown.
He said Trump's comments about the military were "positive in isolation".
Thousands of miles from Davos in Nuuk, the Greenlandic capital, government officials unveiled a new brochure giving advice to residents about what to do if there were a "crisis" in the territory.
Self-Sufficiency Minister Peter Borg said the document was "an insurance policy". He
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