But two more thoughts about it.
First, and not at all surprisingly, Trump’s tactics here are not only alarming Americans, including what semi-responsible wing of the party is still in Congress, they are actively alienating the people of Greenland itself.
The problem is that, for all that Trump paints himself as “King of the Deal,” his impatience, ego, and cognitive decline whimsy make him both a terrible negotiator and insistent on being in the heart of the negotiations. Especially since a big motivation for this efforts is Trump’s own need to seem important and powerful, he can’t help but chime in every time the subject comes up, and do so in the most arrogant and offsetting way he can.
The only way Trump negotiates these days is through bullying. “You can have it the easy way or the hard way” style of threats. “It’s going to happen [whether you like it or not]” type of rhetoric. Which is effective (in the short term) if you can actually cow the people involved. But insult and threaten some people enough, and they become more implacable opponents.
Which doesn’t help the only other tactic he and his team have lit on: that the Greenlanders can be bought. There are proposals being floating that some sort of payment — one-time, or maybe annual — will be made to every Greenlander, as long as they agree to be owned by the US.
Not surprisingly, a lot of Greenlanders consider that insulting. Trump’s transactional nature always leads him to think that everyone has a price. The idea that people might resent that assumption is, to him, incomprehensible.
But that’s where Trump’s other major character flaw — magnified in his old age — comes up: his ego won’t let him back down unless he can do so without looking like the “loser.” He will go to any degree, twist any number of arms, make any level of promises, tantalize with any sort of profit, threaten any sort of dire result, to avoid looking like a “loser.” It’s the biggest, most abusive lesson his father taught him. Backing down, or even appearing to compromise, is for losers, and being a loser is the worst thing there is.
That’s where Trump runs into even deeper trouble regarding Greenland (and runs the US into trouble along with it). Having rattled sabers, explained Greenland’s immeasurable strategic importance, promised folk behind the scenes that they will have access to great natural resources, and been told about all the proposed 51-star US flags and statues that will be raised to him and how American school children will be taught about his achievement forever, and, heck, they’ll probably rename all those parts of Greenland which are named after old Danish kings for Trump instead … he can’t back down. He backed himself (and, so, the US) into a corner that has no exit but through: he needs to show his base, the nation, and the world that he won, and he can only do that by a deal or action that effectively takes over Greenland for the US.
So even though we have all sorts of treaty rights already to expand our military facilities there, and we can right now put a ring of US Navy ships in place that would cow any imaginary Chinese invasion … that’s no longer good enough. That would mean that something he has said will happen, must happen — the US owning Greenland — didn’t happen. And then people will laugh, and think he’s weak, and call him a loser, and he won’t be able to point to King Trump Land on the map or anything like that.
That’s the most imminent danger I see. That no matter how US public opinion (or Greenlandic public opinion, or Senatorial public opinion, or world public opinion) is against use of force here, the only opinion Donald really values — the frightened little boy in his head who is terrified of his father’s disapproval — is going to tell him he must do something Forceful and Strong and Powerful and Winning.