There’s something rotten in Greenland
Every priority and antipathy that drives the convicted felon Donald Trump has a hidden reason. Not always well-hidden, to be sure. He hates Ukraine because Volodymyr Zelenskyy refused to announce an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden, and Trump’s attempt to blackmail Zelenskyy led to Trump’s first impeachment. Trump wants to grab Panama because he owns property down there and has a lot of sleazy deals going on. He hates Obama because he’s a racist asshole, and because Obama humiliated him at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. He loves Vladimir Putin because Vlad is everything Donald wants to be, rich beyond the dreams of avarice, dictator for life, able to murder anyone who speaks out against him.
So what’s Trump’s beef with Greenland? I only have a hypothesis. Greenland was a founding member of NATO and NATO is a major thorn in the side of Putin. Also, Trump’s offhand remark during his first term about acquiring Greenland garnered a lot of mockery and criticism. Just as George W Bush conquered Iraq to atone for his father’s failure there, Trump must atone for the only one who matters to him: himself. He must prove the mockers and laughers wrong and seize Greenland all for himself.
Just as MAGA is spreading lies that Tesla is doing brisk sales (they aren’t), Trump and JD Vance are spreading lies that the people of Greenland want to break with Denmark and join the United States (they don’t). As a matter of fact, an overwhelming majority of Greenlanders oppose the idea of US annexation of their country. That’s why when Vance cast around for Greenlanders to stand with him in solidarity during his visit on Friday to Pituffik Space Base in the north of Greenland, he couldn’t find any.
In a flagrant lie, Friday’s visit was initially billed as a “cultural” tour by Vance’s wife, Usha. No, Vance himself was there to scope the place out for Trump, like a real estate assessor going to the north of Scotland looking for prime golf course land. Vance was also there to drum up support for Trump’s cockamamie plan to take Greenland — by force, if need be. Borrowing a phrase from his boss’s pathetically limited vocabulary, Vance said Greenland has “not done a good job” for its people.
We know Trump will try to take Greenland by force because, in his remarks, Vance sought to reassure the people of Greenland that the US would NOT use military force to take the island from Denmark. Since that remark came from Trump and Trump never tells the truth then we know force will be used. Instead, Vance urged Greenlanders to embrace “self-determination” and sever ties with Denmark, which has controlled the region since 1721.
The idea is unbelievably unpopular with the people of Greenland and the governments of Greenland and Denmark. This presents Trump with a problem. Trump MUST have Greenland, because he’s a spoiled man-baby who can’t bear not to get what he wants. Since he can’t have it by permission, the only other option left to him is to take it by military force. This he will almost certainly do — eventually.
Back at the despoiled and vulgarised White House, Trump said, “We need Greenland, very importantly, for international security. We have to have Greenland. It’s not a question of: ‘Do you think we can do without it?’ We can’t.” When you give a narcissistic sociopath the power of the presidency, woe to the people of America, woe to the people of the world and woe to the planet. Something is rotten in the state of Greenland, and that something is Trump.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.