Donald Trump crossed a line on Sunday, January 18, in a message to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, which both Trump and Støre made public. Trump’s message was in response to attempts by Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb to de-escalate Trump-stoked tensions over Greenland. Trump threatened to take Greenland by force and to impose U.S. tariffs on several European countries (including Norway and Finland) that opposed Trump’s Greenland Grab.
Here is the full message:
Dear Jonas:
Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.
Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also.
The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.
Thank you!
President DJT
My reaction was summarized by a Trump supporter who shared Trump’s message with me: “I’m beginning to think the Dems are right that Trump is insane.” When I looked at X, it was clear that a lot of other people felt the same way. It wasn’t noteworthy that Leftists agreed, since they are stopped clocks. What was noteworthy is that people on the Right were drawing the same conclusion.
Why does Trump’s message seem insane, i.e., detached from reality?
First of all, Trump seems unable to grasp the fact that the government of Norway does not award the Nobel Peace Prize, even though he has been informed of this.
Second, the argument that since an organization in Norway did not award Trump the Nobel Peace Prize, Trump no longer needs to think purely of peace (in relation to Denmark, no less), sounds like narcissistic rage and lashing out.
Somehow most people manage not to attack their neighbors without the bribe of the Nobel Peace Prize. But Donald Trump is different. Unfortunately, he is different in a bad way. He is acting like a gangster threatening war if he is not appeased with shiny trinkets.
This sort of narcissism is not abnormal for a spoiled child or a man slipping into a second childhood. But it is abnormal for a fully functional adult. What makes it seem insane is that a fully functional adult would know that he should hide such feelings. Trump feels no shame or need for concealment. This is a sign that he is out of touch with reality.
Trump’s claim that Greenland should be American territory because Denmark cannot defend it from Russia or China is bogus.
First of all, it proves too much, since practically every country on earth cannot defend itself from China or Russia in a one-to-one confrontation, which means that the US has the right to annex practically the whole globe.
Second, Denmark can defend Greenland from Russia and China because the confrontation would not be one-to-one, since Denmark is part of NATO. Since the US is a charter member of NATO, it is already obligated to defend Greenland. So there’s no need to change Greenland’s ownership to ensure its security or America’s.
Moreover, the US and Denmark have signed bilateral agreements to base American troops in Greenland, first in 1941 during the Second World War. This relationship was deepened in the 1951 Defense of Greenland Agreement, which was updated in 2004. At the peak of the Cold War, the US maintained more than 50 military installations in Greenland. Since the Cold War, these have been reduced to one. Thus under current agreements, the US could build 50+ military installations in Greenland.
It seems insane to threaten war and economic sanctions to get something we already have, especially since it alienates our European allies, demoralizes Trump’s supporters, and emboldens his enemies.
The idea that Denmark’s claim to Greenland is specious because rests merely on the fact that Vikings landed there first overthrows one of the basic principles of ownership, personal or collective: finders keepers.
The claim that Danish ownership is baseless because there are “no written documents” is a new low for Trump. What sort of document is he envisioning? A deed written in runes? Could Trump be fobbed off with a rune stone? Just make up a translation on fancy parchment, dip the stone in gold, mount it for display on Trump’s mantelpiece, and send it to Mar a Lago. Crisis averted.
There are, moreover, actual documents in which the US recognizes Danish sovereignty over Greenland, most recently the Defense of Greenland Agreement.
Trump’s final line, “The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland,” is menacingly ambiguous: secure from whom? So far, the only person who has threatened violence over Greenland is Donald Trump.
Støre responded by reaffirming Norway’s support for Danish sovereignty over Greenland, noting that the Nobel Peace Prize is independent of the Norwegian government, and emphasizing that questions of Arctic security can be handled through NATO without territorial revisions.
Because Trump’s stated rationales for acquiring Greenland don’t hold water, the natural conclusion is that this is a vanity project: Trump wants to LARP as an American imperialist from the turn of the twentieth century, when America was a flourishing nation, not the declining wreck that it is today. The vanity hypothesis is confirmed by Trump’s petulant pursuit of the Nobel Peace Prize and, frankly, everything else we know about the man’s character.
But Trump was elected to save America. He has limited political capital and a shrinking window of opportunity to do so. Risking his country’s ruin on vanity projects is unforgivable.
The Støre letter and the whole Greenland Grab have been a huge blow to Trump’s supporters and a huge gift to his enemies. Many of his supporters are thinking that he is not up to the job, that he is blowing it and paving the way for the apocalyptic return of the lunatic Left to the White House. The Left, of course, are salivating at the prospects of vengeance.
Joe Biden’s senility was hidden from the nation by the same establishment that will eagerly pounce on the slightest signs of mental instability and cognitive decline in Trump. If the Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives later this year, they will almost certainly impeach Trump again. If he continues to behave this way, more than a few Republican Senators will vote to convict.
News of this seems to have gotten past Trump’s bodyguard of sycophants. On Wednesday, January 21, Trump attempted to walk back the Greenland Grab in his speech at Davos by emphasizing that the US would not use force to take the territory. Since then, there have been murky face-saving statements from Trump and Mark Rutte, the current Secretary General of NATO. Although Trump is claiming victory and his legions of sycophants and retarded boosters are following in suite, it looks like Danish-American relations have simply returned to the status quo ante.
But we have lost a great deal in the process:
- America has lost the trust and respect of our European allies.
- Trump and the United States are a global laughingstock.
- Trump has weakened European nationalists and strengthened European globalists.
I am going to need a vacation just to uncringe.
Late last year, I predicted that Trump would be removed from office this year. Trump has been entrusted with an enormous—indeed, virtually impossible—task. Even in the best-case scenario, America cannot be turned around in four years, especially if the Democrats get back in office. Thus we always needed more than Trump. We need a series of Trumpian presidents.
If Trump keeps blowing it, there will come a point when it will be virtually impossible for J.D. Vance or any other Republican nominee to win, with catastrophic consequences, including very real short-term consequences for Trump and everyone associated with him. Before we reach that point, Trump will be persuaded to step aside, so that Vance has a chance to fix things and can enjoy the advantages of incumbency in 2028.
Thanks to the Greenland Grab, that day is closer than ever.
By Greg Johnson
