Donald Trump ridicules Denmark and insists US will take Greenland

...Trump took the unprecedented step of refusing to rule out military action to take territory from a Nato ally...
what. the. fuck.
- i'm guessing that heputin thinks that doing so would be enough to break apart the alliance or get the u.s. kicked out.
  
  That would definitely do it. With the way Trump is talking Denmark might end up being forced to expel the US military from Thule to avoid a Chrimea scenario.
  
  "Heputin" is how I'll be saving space and time moving forward.
  
  always remember: when something bad happens, it's always russia's fault somehow. no introspection allowed.
- What even happens if one NATO member attacks another? Does the aggressor immediately get their membership nullified and the rest must come together and declare war on them?
  
  NATO immediately loses all credibility. Otherwise, nothing much.
  NATO was founded as a defensive pact against the Soviet Union.
  The only time it was ever used was as a tool by the US to force other countries to join the war in Afghanistan.
  Article 5 isn't an automatism that forces all members to start an all-out war. They're still sovereign.
  
  I mean, it's never happened. But the US declaring war on Danish territory would violate Article 5.

I hope NATO responds… but is this partially an effort to weaken and distract NATO so it’s easier for Putin to have his way with Europe?
- Very likely to be.
- Could even be worse than that if the USA follows through, China could enter the party. Trump just needs 41 senate loyalists and he can do whatever he wants. Right now he has 53.
  
  It’s gonna be a looooooooooong four years.
- Yes, every time something happens that you don't like, it's russia's fault. No other explanation allowed/required.

The US congress must approve a declaration of war. Here is to hoping that there are enough sane senators left. Nobody wants this war, but if Europe doesn't stand up to bullies, we're doomed to be taken advantage of further. This is a challenge that will define a generation of European leadership.
I also find it delightfully ironic that the US now risks invading Denmark and it's up to the rest of EU to stand up against it when Denmark spied for the US on the rest of the EU between 2012 and 2014 and were caught red handed.
Just goes to show the old lesson of what the US does to its allies once they're no longer useful.
- The Iraq War proved that Congress doesn't have the balls to insist on that point of order.
  
  And Korea, and Vietnam, and...
- I don't think it'll start with a formal declaration. He won't get that.
  I think he'll order the military to stop paying for the US military base in Greenland without leaving, then have them expand operations outside of the agreement to provoke a response.
  This will of course make every other country far less likely to renew or grant leases for US military bases and reduce US global military hegemony. But nobody driving this is thinking that far ahead.
  
  every other country far less likely to renew or grant leases for US military bases are reduce global military hegemony. But nobody driving this is thinking that far ahead.
  Oh I suspect some of the people driving this are getting exactly what they paid for.
- We haven't declared war since WW2. The President can launch an attack without needing Congress backing for ~90 days if I remember correctly. I'm hoping he isn't dumb enough to do so, but he may get drunk one night and set it off while removed on truth social at 1 in the morning and make a drunken phone call because he's not mentally stable.
  
  He doesnt drink, this is all his regular brainwaves. :(
  
  In a world where he is bound by laws he is also bound to uphold treaties ratified by Congress, and attacking Greenland is an immediate violation of our NATO treaties. So if Congress actually felt like flexing its authority they could shut down an invasion immediately, but I have little hope of that happening.
  
  Yeah, but we're talking about a potential Greenland War here, it's not gonna be just a little Vietnam tour, or like the Korea Kerfuffle. The exercises in Iraq and Afghanistan also don't really compare.

And you know he’s escalating because his narcissistic personality hates being told no, especially on such a public stage.

I wonder what the real problem play is here.
Distraction to soak up outrage and attention?
Actual desire to take Greenland because they global warming will unveil riches beneath the ice?
Naively thinking NATO will abandon the USA as quickly as Trump would abandon NATO?
Thinking they can divert NATO defenses to Greenland instead of Ukraine?
No scenario seems like a smart play but that’s MAGA for you.
- Dementia-addled brain latches onto a stupid obsession for random reasons and everyone ends up trying to figure out what 4-D chess move is really behind it.
  It's still a problem the world needs to deal with, but I don't think it's as deep as everyone thinks.
  
  I agree. He just wants to have it because he floated the idea once and people disagreed with him. The dangerous part is when it eventually becomes an embarrassment to him because Denmark and the EU won't budge.
  
  ...just give him a sharpie and let him doodle on a big wall map; problem solved...
- I think that invading greenland is an effective way to destroy nato. Russia and China would be pleased.
- Its a smart play for china.
  China will be happy to pump this with trump.
  Trump will happily be told by china he can have it if they can have Taiwan. He won't care about the second part, just hearing he is ok to proceed will send him signing orders
  Then Europe/NATO will object complain, block fight etc.
  Suddenly dollar isn't the Petro dollar anymore because of their stability issues. China will step up and trumpet themselves as the stable one so use them.
  Once Petro dollar isn't USA anymore all hell breaks lose economy wise.
- Other post on topic had comment on new shipping lanes near Arctic thawing and already being used by Chinese ships illegally and the rich fucks want control.
- 1 seems the most likely to me. 2 won't be relevant for at least another 60 years or so, 3 I hope is not true, 4 seems absurd to me.

Greenland joins US. Existing Greenland people not born in US. Deported coz not a citizen.
- Wow. You are so right.
- Seized lands auctioned off to highest corporate bidders along with liberal rights. Exploitation of the wilderness destroys it. Capitalism and oligarchy destroys another piece of our world.

Why do we want Greenland anyway? It's the icy one, right?
No but serious question. What value does it have?
- Mineral and oil extraction made easier by global warming. But the real prize is open shipping lanes over the Arctic.
  Here's a great break down of the economics:
  https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.economist.com%2Ffinance-and-economics%2F2025%2F01%2F23%2Fthe-arctic-climate-changes-great-economic-opportunity
  
  Well that's nice and all, but IMO the real reason is Trump got laughed at last term when he suggested buying Greenland, and now he has to buy it to show how good of an idea it was and that he totally wasn't upset by the mocking. Like when you tell a toddler not to do something and they immediately start doing it more.
  
  Well damn this is depressing. Leave it to humans to capitalize on a dying earth.
  
  The article is ... interesting:
  For bears of both the market and polar kind, a planet without an ice cap is a tragedy. The Arctic is warming four times faster than the world at large, causing ice to shrink by an area the size of Austria each year. Since the 1980s the volume of ice has fallen by 70% or more. The Arctic’s first ice-free day may occur before 2030.
- It looks big on the map, trump thinks he's about to gain 50% more land for america
  
  Resources, north sea access, missile defense.
  It's dumb but with climate change it's valuable territory, geopolitically.
  The stupidity is we already have all the military stuff we need there, and long standing agreements.
  It's also Denmark's so we should fuck off.
  In addition to it not being for sale, Annexation is bullshit because it doesn't provide proper representation to those that live there. The whole country was formed with ideas of representation and taxation in mind (albeit quite imperfectly). Anywhere the US flag flies, those under it should get full rights and powers as a citizen.
- Northwest Passage claim
- It borders the US and is populated by white people.
  Notice how he also talks about Canada becoming a US state.
  He doesn't want to expand the US to the south, cause that would make Mexicans US citizens.
  But he's basically internalized Putin's logic that territorial expansion is good.
  Even though that kind of thinking is over 100 years out of date.

Why does everyone keep taking Trump at face value? His security concerns are a cover for the resources American companies want to extract from Greenland.
- The ones Greenland offered to negotiate a deal for?
  
  Don't need a deal if you just steal it.
  
  Yeah. This is 1800's banana company level stuff.
- Moreover, it is possible that this is one of his hander's favourite strategies. He's making a lot of smoke about the whole Greenland thing, so he is trying to bury something bad in the news. Potentially how staple item prices are going to skyrocket in the US when your oil, lumber and more than half of your raw minerals cost 25% more.
- Because Greenland is open for business without the threats. Arguably, it's less open for business now.
  
  This isn't post world war 2 global trade, this is 19th century global trade. They want full control.

No one dares to say something.
- The handlers will just let Donny play in a protected playpen and scream and shout all he wants and they'll throw in a stuffed toy or a plastic toy he can easily break and get his frustrations out.
  The problems will start when little Donny will start to get out of control and start pushing buttons he isn't supposed to have access to.
  Hopefully, the Nuclear Football is baby proofed enough to keep us all alive.

He has his loyalists in power. No one to say no to him and that will follow his orders.
He cycled through a lot of staff last time round
- Not saying he won't fire a bunch of people this time, but last time he was in so far over his head he didn't know he had to hire/bring in all of those positions. He thought he just walked in and the people were there to bark orders at.
  
  Indeed. He probably presumed he was emperor supreme last time and got a rude awakening. So he’s (well his handlers) spent the last 4 years making it so next time round he would actually be emperor.

A "world leader", ladies and gentlemen.

https://archive.ph/2025.01.26-174030/https://www.ft.com/content/a935f6dc-d915-4faf-93ef-280200374ce1
- Was it paywalled? I didn't notice anything.
  
  It is.

This is an example of flooding the zone with shit do we talk about this and not the confirmations or the ICE raids.
- You right, but what would talking about thr conformation or raids do?

- And the heads who would replace him.
  That's the important thing, because Trump at least is dumb as a bucket of shit, imagine someone with the same ideology, but more than one brain cell taking his place.

- No thanks. We don't want your nukes thrown back at us. You gotta solve this yourselves.
- Maybe it's what the world needs to heal.

taking greenland will just a easy simple step in making a list of names of all the people who would stand up/protest, before he starts all the actual wars in the middle east

this idiot knows the British and french have nukes, right?

Time to go see if China are interested in building some military bases on Greenland. Same thing for Panama for that matter. Maybe Canada wants some help as well?

to be fair, Denmark is ridiculous.
have you ever heard them speak? like they have potatoes in their mouthes.
Sweden and Norway should take Greenland.
- have you ever heard them speak?
  That's rich coming from a dutch (judging by your instance's TLD).
  
  ...besides, potatoes are a new world crop: danish probably developed while eating turnips...
- Under normal circumstances I would agree with any amount of banter targeted at Denmark, but these are exceptional circumstances.