On the
Trump-Greenland Disaster
January 21, 2026
Americans are terrible at knowing the facts of history, much
less knowing what those facts mean. So let me take you back to September, 1945.
World War II has just ended. Germany, Japan, and their various allies have
surrendered to the allies, the most important of which were the United States,
the United Kingdom, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Tens of
millions of people (or more) have been killed in war since the Japanese invaded
Manchuria and the Germans invaded the Soviet Union. The United States, UK,
France, and other nations of western Europe, whichever side of the war they had
been on, were terrified that the Soviet Union’s Red Army would not stop at
Germany but would march on to conquer all of Europe. The Soviets had their
armed forces in the eastern part of Germany and in Poland, Hungary, Austria,
and other nations of central Europe. They had annexed the three Baltic
republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania against the will of most of the
people of those countries.
It became clear that they had no intention of relinquishing
control of the part of the continent outside their own borders that they had
occupied. Western Europe was indeed vulnerable to further Soviet expansion,
though one reason—perhaps the main reason—why the United States, the UK, and
others had invaded France and moved their forces eastward against fierce German
resistance when the Soviets already had Hitler on the run was to stop the
Soviet Union from taking over more of Europe than it already had or clearly
would. Soviet ideology was indeed expansionist. The Soviets called for
so-called socialist, really Communist, revolutions everywhere in the world but
especially perhaps in western Europe. There were, of course, Marxists in
western Europe who might have welcomed a Soviet takeover of their country, but
most Europeans, especially wealthy Europeans, were horrified by the thought of
living under Soviet rule.
So the western allies undertook an immensely important move.
They created NATO, the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization. They intended it as a defensive not an offensive alliance.
It’s most important provision was, and is, Article 5 of the NATO charter. It
provided that all NATO nations would treat any attack on any NATO country as an
attack on all NATO countries. NATO was no doubt the primary reason the USSR
didn’t even try to expand farther into Europe after the war than it already
had.
NATO has been a smashing success. With only one significant
exception involving Serbia, there was been no war in western Europe since the
end of World War II. That there hasn’t been is truly remarkable given the way
European nations were so fond of going to war against each other before the end
of World War II. The United States has always been a key NATO member. We were
involved in NATO’s creation. We have provided nearly all of the nuclear shield
over western Europe that played a central role in stopping Soviet aggression in
that part of the world and continues to do so with regard to Russia in the
post-Soviet era. Today, nearly every European nation west of Russia, Belarus,
and Ukraine is a member of NATO as is Turkey, which is only partly European.
For reasons that make absolutely no sense to any informed,
thinking, halfway intelligent person, Trump wants the United States to take
Greenland for itself. Greenland is part of NATO member Denmark. It is in many
ways autonomous, but the nation to which it belongs is still Denmark. Trump
says he wants the US to buy Greenland from Denmark and has more than once threated
to use military force to take it if Denmark won’t sell it. He lies and says
that the US needs Greenland for national security against Russia and China.
Neither Russia nor China has any desire or use for Greenland. The US currently
has one military base in Greenland that is part of our missile defense system. Greenland
is part of a NATO ally. The US has absolutely no need for Greenland whatsoever.
So what’s going on here? What certainly seems to be going on
is that Donald Trump is becoming demented or is otherwise losing his grip on
reality. He has gotten a harebrained idea in his head, and the can’t let it go.
He doesn’t understand reality. He lives in a fantasy world of his own making. He
won’t listen to reason. Facts mean nothing to him. He considers anyone who
disagrees with him about Greenland or anything else to be an enemy to be
attacked not an opponent with whom to debate.
Now, dementia is common in older people; and Donald Trump is
old, 79 years old as I write. When an ordinary citizen becomes demented, it is
unfortunate and often difficult for that person, for that person’s loved ones,
and that person’s care givers. Trust me on this one. I have a close relative
who is the same age as Trump and who has a fair amount of dementia.[1]
When you tell a demented person that something that is real for her is not
real, she’s likely just to get mad at you and stick to her demented belief.
When the president of the United States becomes demented,
the consequences are far, far more serious. Trump’s demented fixation on
Greenland has already gone a long way toward destroying international security
arrangements that have prevented a new world war for eighty years. It is likely
to result in the European Union imposing economic sanctions on the US in
response to Trump’s threat to put a tariff on European goods if he doesn’t get
Greenland. It may lead to the end of NATO. That, of course, is something
Vladimir Putin would love to have happen; and it is easy enough to believe that
Trump serves Putin’s interests more than the serves true American interests.
We are not facing an ordinary political situation here. We
are facing a complete disaster. Absolutely nothing good can come from Trump’s
Greenland fixation. Only destruction can follow. As Canadian Prime Minister
Carney has suggested, Trump’s Greenland fixation and other grievous faults may
lead to mid-level economic nations like Canada banding together without and
even against the US to protect their own legitimate interests. Trump is causing
the US to lose its position of leadership in the world. He is turning to the
use and the threat of military force to achieve his results not to traditional,
tried and true methods of diplomatic negotiation.[2]
Donald Trump is an unmitigated disaster for the United
States and, indeed, for the whole world. We can’t be rid of him soon enough.
Congress should be stepping in to stop his insane threats and actions and even
to remove him from office, but of course they won’t because Congress is full of
Republican Trump toadies. Oh well. It is what it is, and all we can do is hope
that our country and God’s world will survive our demented president.
[1] My
relative’s dementia is associated with one or more strokes. As far as we know,
Donald Trump has not had a stroke; but people become demented without a
precipitation event like a stroke.
[2]
Trump said in Davos, Switzerland, today that he will not use military force to
take Greenland. Sounds good, but then, we can’t believe a word Trump says; so
who knows?
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