Let's talk about Greenland for a moment

Yes, he's dead serious about acquiring Greenland

TAT Readers,

This evening’s essay is a primer regarding Greenland, Trump and why all of this matters in the first place. I’ll try and not make this into dry history and also keep the discussion connected to current events. Spoiler alert: if the administration tries to do to Greenland what we just did to Venezuela, the US risks war with NATO at worst, or the complete loss of our closest allies for the last hundred years plus, at best.

Let’s start with the basics.

Greenland has belonged to Denmark for centuries. This is even more complicated now because Greenland has been slowly moving towards independence and now gets a legislatively guaranteed say in her future. Negotiations would have to be trilateral, at a minimum. That’s assuming that either Greenland or Denmark would even consider such negotiations in the first place. Both have indicated that they have zero interests in such a discussion. That should be the end of it… unless of course, someone like Trump is the antagonist, pounding the table demanding to get his way or else. I have seen more eloquence from playground bullies.

It’s true that the US has had well over a century’s worth of interest in acquiring Greenland and all for good reasons. While that the sale was repeatedly rejected by the Danes, the next best deal was signed, which gave the US military, operational access. The relationship has been mostly cozy ever since… and then along comes Trump making territorial demands on nations in the Western Hemisphere, and based on a strategy that he couldn’t even pronounce, let alone understand.

As that I have discussed this a couple of times in the not too distant past, the following is the briefest of overviews:

"The post WW II strategic alignment was largely bilateral, communism vs. capitalism. After the fall of the Soviet Empire, the global has been slowly realigning. My analysis says that that the new world order revolves around Putin's favorite version of sovereignty rights. In the Russian version, only a handful of superpowers have full sovereign rights. The US, Russia and China are the three nations with full rights. Each controls a region and all nations in their respective region owe a formal or informal tribute to either Washington, Moscow or Beijing. In this arrangement, the US employs a Trumpian version of the Monroe Doctrine he likes to call, The Donroe Doctrine. His intention is to dominate the entire western hemisphere, hence taking Greenland under US control. He will not change his mind."

-  US adventurism in Venezuela, is only the first brazen step in the new "Donroe Doctrine"
- Cobaugh
- January 2026

Many Americans didn’t take Trump seriously in 2019 either when he began his mutterings about Greenland. It was on his lips six days into this his second administration. He’s not kidding nor will he change his mind. My educated guess is that Putin’s been painting a picture in Trump’s head for a couple of decades about how glorious it would be to carve up the world into a couple Tsardoms and a Chinese Dynasty. For those that follow the movements of powerful nations around the world, the ever—increasing number of indicators of this intended tri-lateral world, abound.

How many nations in the Americas besides Venezuela, has Trump threatened recently? Canada, Cuba, Columbia, Denmark/ Greenland, Panama, Mexico and I’m sure I’ve missed a headline or two. Make no mistake about it, our military will become an exclusively mercenary army, securing nations with resources so US oligarchs can steal from them, not an army of US national security.

At risk of being a bit satirical, where in the hell is it written in our constitution, that a president gets to embark on wars of empire-building for his oligarchical buddies in big oil. We are watching his megalomania unfold in real-time and there is significant risk to our national security because of it. This is mostly about our NATO Treaty obligations and whether or not US aggression could or world trigger an Article 5 Response from NATO. The short answer is that there a couple of legal maneuvers that could be employed to provide an offramp to Article 5 conflict but if Denmark would invoke Article 5, it would mean war between the US and NATO. These are delicate matters, to say the least. The loss of these long-time trusted allies could be catastrophic.

The bottom-line to today’s essay is short and sweet. Trump will not stop pursuing ownership of the western hemisphere, nor will Putin and Xi stop pursuing their hold on their projected regional kingdoms. Greenland from a strategic point of view is a key component of the security of the Americas. Both Russia or China would give anything to have dominance over such a key strategic gem. They cannot be allowed to acquire that dominance, but that doesn’t mean that we must “own” Iceland either, especially when our existing security agreements have done a fine job for generations.

While that there are plenty of more sensational headlines these days, issues like Greenland and it’s role in the new world order, are also deeply important to keep an eye on. The acquisition of Greenland by the US under any terms other than one that the citizens, freely choose for themselves is wrong, illegal and dangerous. Allowing either Russian or Chinese dominance, also dangerous. There are countless better approaches to a relationship with Greenland than the loud, boorish bellowing of threats from the Oval Office. This administration avoids better approaches to anything or anyone.

A little over a week ago, Venezuela was the first domino to fall. Without powerful resistance from the electorate and congressional pressure from both parties, there will be several more. I guess Trump decided that if he can’t get the Nobel Peace Prize, he’d just give up and make war instead.

As with all issues Trump or Republican these days, all of this Greenland talk also provides a distraction from the abysmal failures of the DOJ to publish the Epstein Files. They want us to be distracted, refocused on other less dangerous issues and to stop asking the hard questions. That won’t happen. This administration and the GOP will continue throwing all manner of diversions at us for as long as they divert attention away from their complicity in protecting pedophiles. It is up to us not be distracted.

As it pertains to the global order, Greenland may be a bellwether issue for determining just how expendable Trump and the Republicans see the lives of our troops. Will they further isolate us from NATO? Will they enable Russia and China further? To date, there appears to be little that the Republican-led congress won’t enable the administration to do. SCOTUS is even more hopeless. Should this administration continue to acquire its foreign policy goals by force, it becomes up to us to determine whether the United States is to defend democracy in the future, or be the engine of its global extinction.

Take on your week,

Paul