‘Comrade’ Trump goes on another Greenland rant
Not even China’s Xi could have predicted the diplomatic destruction emerging from the Oval Office
Should we be calling American President Donald Trump “comrade?” Since moving back into the White House last year, he has treated the United States’ allies as adversaries while embracing its enemies.
Not even Supreme Leader Xi Jinping of China’s Communist Party state or Russia’s autocrat Vladimir Putin could have predicted the diplomatic destruction emerging from the Oval Office. Especially when Comrade Trump’s targets are other NATO nations.
“Trumpism, in rejecting the liberal international order, permits US adversaries, [such as] China, to present themselves as the true guardians of a desirable global system,” Robert D Blackwill, of the Council on Foreign Relations, pointed out.
“[So,] Trump’s disregard for US-created international institutions and alliances carries perils that transcend the loss of legitimacy,” he wrote in a major report for CFR this month, adding:
“While Trumpism undermines international stability, an ascendant China and lesser revisionist powers – Iran, North Korea, and Russia – join forces to subvert the West.”
None of this could have happened without that man in the White House. Last month, he released his National Security Strategy, reserving his “greatest vitriol for Europe.” It came off the back of a global tariffs war that hit friends of the US as hard as foes.
“You wouldn’t have NATO if I didn’t get involved.”
US President Donald Trump
From Greenland to Trumpland:
- Fast-forward, and this has been followed up with talk of taking over Greenland, which is part of Denmark, a NATO and European Union member.
- “We now live in a world defined by raw power,” Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President, said in Strasbourg today.
Delve deeper: For Trump, his obsession with the strategic island of rock and ice is wrapped up in national security issues. Yet the US can station as many troops as are deemed necessary under the 1951 Greenland Defense Agreement hammered out by NATO.
Between the lines: Still, he has threatened fresh tariffs on eight allies that oppose his proposed plan for the island. They include Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. “We do need Greenland, absolutely,” Trump said earlier this month.
Big picture: In the Swiss resort of Davos, he reiterated his demands during a speech at the World Economic Forum. “No nation or group of nations is in any position to be able to secure Greenland, other than the United States,” he said today as reported by Reuters.
China Factor comment: Trump then insisted, “You wouldn’t have NATO if I didn’t get involved.” Yet his involvement risks wrecking the greatest alliance of democratic nations the world has seen. The only winners will be China’s axis of autocracy.