In a whiplash-inducing U-turn, U.S. President Donald Trump suddenly dropped his insistence on taking control of Greenland, mere hours after laying out at great length his rationale for ownership of the Arctic island.
For weeks, Trump stuck firmly to a take-it-or-leave-it position on Greenland, insisting that nothing short of the U.S. owning the Danish territory would address his national security concerns.
On Wednesday, Trump made a detailed case for U.S. control of the island during an hour-plus speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Then, barely four hours after leaving the stage, Trump demolished any shred of validity to his claims.
The president posted on social media that he “had formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region” as a result of a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that lasted less than an hour.
What? So like its over now?
Probably the immediate threat, but the long tail of consequences will go on for a while. Who would want to work with us when we have twice elected a guy like Trump? We are pretty unreliable partners at this point. 😕
Now Greenland and Iceland will join the European Union. The EU will set up its own army, integrate its defense industry and boost defense spending. It will also protect its markets from US abuse and use its industrial leverage geopolitically. It will form international alliances with the likes of China and India.
It might slowly (or not) unwind its 8tn holdings of US debt, form a dedicated European financial infrastructure, and aggressively push for the euro as an alternative to the dollar.
In short, the US will lose its primary foreign market, and its closest ally.
That sounds pretty awesome, not gonna lie
TACO.
Well, maybe for Trump. I suspect it won’t be over for the Danes and Greenlanders for quite some time.
I doubt its over, to me this seems more like they are gonna find a way to take it without military force and with less of a media spotlight. Probably through some kind of manipulatation or strong arming greenland to declare independence from Denmark and become a US territory/vassal state.
As we’ve seen with Venezuela, many leaders around the world are too afraid to condemn his actions and instead want to appease him to keep themselves out of the spotlight.