U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is giving the European Union some strategic advice: don't let President Donald Trump's Greenland obsession blow up your trade deal. Speaking with reporters at the Detroit Auto Show on Saturday, Greer suggested Europe has a choice in how they handle the escalating tariff threats.

Europe's Choice: Keep Greenland Separate or Escalate

The message from Greer was pretty straightforward. The EU can decide whether to "silo" the Greenland issue away from the broader U.S.-EU trade agreement, or let it become a bigger political mess.

"If I were the Europeans, I would probably try to silo this off if they can," Greer told reporters, according to reports. "If they want to make it an issue in the trade deal, that's really up to them and not us."

Translation: The ball's in Europe's court if they want this to spiral into a full-blown trade war.

Trump's Tariff Timeline Targets Eight Nations

The backdrop here is Trump's latest tariff announcement targeting Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Great Britain. The reason? These countries opposed his proposal to purchase Greenland.

The president laid out a timeline: additional 10% import tariffs would kick in February 1st, then climb to 25% by June 1st if there's no resolution. That's not exactly a subtle negotiating tactic.

Greer characterized these potential tariffs as "largely national security determinations," though he acknowledged that U.S. trade officials inevitably get pulled into any tariff action. "Whenever there's a tariff involved, we're involved, and we want to make sure that we're equipping the president to be able to take whatever steps he makes," he said.

Bipartisan Pushback and European Warnings

The tariff threats aren't going over well, even among Trump's own party. On Saturday, Republican senators publicly criticized the move as a dangerous escalation that could undermine NATO and hand wins to Russia and China.

Sen. Thom Tillis called the tariffs a "bad" response to a Greenland training exercise, while Sen. Lisa Murkowski urged Congress to prevent tariffs from being weaponized for political purposes.

European lawmakers are equally unhappy. The European People's Party signaled it could no longer support a key EU-U.S. trade agreement, and EU leaders warned that the tariff threats risk damaging transatlantic relations while strengthening adversaries. So much for that trade deal momentum.