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The president ordered a successful kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and he seems to be feeling his oats. After months of apparently forgetting about his deranged idea to conquer Greenland by force, it is now back under discussion, and Trump seems to be actually serious this time. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that a “range of options” are under consideration, including “utilizing the U.S. military.”
Last summer, I spent over a month reporting on Greenland, including visiting its capital, Nuuk, for over a week, where I talked to all kinds of folks. When I asked about Trump’s annexation threats, the overwhelming reaction was bafflement. What on earth could the point possibly be? What could America possibly get from invasion and annexation that it does not already have?
The answer on any grounds—morality, self-interest, national security, or plain common sense—is: nothing. These are the ravings of a degenerate monster, the worst person ever to occupy high office in this country, who in his dotage is indulging every one of his numerous awful instincts. This idea is entirely cruel, brutish stupidity.
Greenland is an exceptionally difficult place to scratch out a living, and it’s taken decades of grinding effort from the island’s residents—and a large ongoing subsidy from the Danish government—for it to develop a reasonably prosperous economy. Greenland is important for American security, but the U.S. military already has full access to the place, and Trump’s belligerence might cause untold damage. Indeed, the entire U.S. defense posture since the Second World War takes a working relationship with Denmark, Greenland, and Canada—which Trump has also threatened with violent annexation—entirely for granted. It follows that Trump’s Greenland threats themselves pose a severe danger to American national security.
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