The saga of President Donald Trump’s quest for Greenland continues with a new chapter.
In the last chapter, the Danes were in hysterics over Trump naming Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as U.S. special envoy to Greenland. Special envoys are agents appointed as the president’s personal representative and are often appointed in response to congressional or public attention to a particular region or issue. As I noted then:
Unless the map of the Arctic changes significantly due to a seismic event, I suspect that the Trump administration will continue to give Greenland all the attention that it warrants…with or without Denmark’s approval.
It looks like I was right, as this weekend Trump underscored the concept that he viewed a more robust U.S. relationship with Greenland a national security issue.
On Sunday evening, after Ms. Frederiksen’s statement, Mr. Trump doubled down. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security,” he told reporters on Air Force One, seemingly emboldened after the American raid on Venezuela and capture of Nicolás Maduro, its authoritarian leader, and his wife….Mr. Trump says that the island is vital for American national security, and argues that Denmark is not spending enough to properly safeguard it.Greenland is important because of its geostrategic location. An American military base, which specializes in missile defense, is on the island.Most of Greenland is inside the Arctic Circle, where superpowers are vying for both military and commercial dominance. Controlling the island would give the United States an outpost in a critically important naval corridor that connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic, where climate change is melting the ice and making once-unnavigable territory a theater of competition.Greenland also has huge stores of rare earth minerals. These are vital components for making batteries, cellphones, electric vehicles and other items using advanced technologies, and China dominates the global market for them.
The Danes, once again, clutched their pearls and complained about the Bad Orange Man. In fact, the Danish leader said the U.S. annexing the region would destroy the NATO alliance.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Monday an American takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of the NATO military alliance. Her comments came in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s renewed call for the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island to come under U.S. control in the aftermath of the weekend military operation in Venezuela.The dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas to capture leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife early Saturday left the world stunned, and heightened concerns in Denmark and Greenland, which is a semiautonomous territory of the Danish kingdom and thus part of NATO.Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart, Jens Frederik Nielsen, blasted the president’s comments and warned of catastrophic consequences. Numerous European leaders expressed solidarity with them.“If the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2 on Monday. “That is, including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War.”
However, it must be noted that some Danes would like to sell the Arctic island.
There were other interesting posts on social media related to this development. Perhaps the most fascinating was the consideration that when Trump meant “national security,” he was not concerned about potential critical minerals….but the fact that Europeans are not in a position to effectively deter adversarial actions, and the U.S. intends to fully implement the Monroe Doctrine because we are in the best position to protect that region.
Can you keep what you cannot defend? This is the consequence of outsourcing your national defense, then insulting the nation that has been providing it to you since the 1940’s.
A fun X-post from Steven Miller’s wife sparked Richter Scale 10 TDS hysteria.
Now, that image is amusing. However, Trump-haters were enraged…bigly!
It’s hard to say what the ultimate outcome will be. I think a Compact of Free Association would be a great option.
I suspect we will hear a lot more complaints from European leaders about Trump…and he will continue to ignore them.
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