Something that started as a “ha ha, doesn’t he say the darnedest things?” moment years ago — the idea of the US taking over Greenland — is becoming more and more a sign of how out-of-control and downright un-American Donald Trump and his coterie of yes-men and evil genius-wannabes have become.
Let’s start here:
Trump is a bully. If he has power over you, he will wield it. If he thinks bribes will work, he’ll offer them. If he thinks threats will work, he’ll instantly pivot and issue them. There is no principle involved, except for force.
Here we see the next step. First he muses out loud about what shiny thing he’d like to have. Then he says he hopes someone will give it to him. Then he starts issuing threats.
Trump loves tariffs (so far — there’s a vague chance that SCOTUS might actually grow a pair and say that his arbitrary imposition of them is illegal, but we’ll see). The (appear, to him) to give him money, and it lets him punish people by taking their money, so it’s a win-win for him.
There’s a significant escalation, of course, between tariffs as a means of balancing asserted economic imbalances, and tariffs as a coercion to back his latest whims.
Trump doesn’t care. Either he’ll get what he wants (support for absconding with Greenland), or he’ll get (as he sees it) a bunch more money, punish those who didn’t say nice things about his policy, and still move forward to abscond with Greenland.
If he can do it, he will. If he can’t — well, who’s ever to say he can’t?
Which brings us next to this little gem.
Stephen Miller is sort of the eminence grise of the Trump Regime — or maybe its toxic dump, always lurking in the background and leaching poisons into the surrounding land and water. Trump listens to what he has to say to an appalling degree.
In this case, he clearly expounds on his guiding principle which lines up perfectly with his boss: If we can take it, we will take it, and, in fact, we should take it. Or, framed another way, Might Makes Right.
Now, I am not so naive as to think that this attitude is not unique to Miller, or to this moment in American history. The US has always had voices whispering, “Take it! Do it! You’re powerful! You’re proud! It should be yours! Take it!”
But, at the very least, Miller, and Trump, and the rest of the gang of imperialists, have shifted to saying the quiet part out loud. If we want it, we can take it. If we can take it, we should take it.
He added that because Denmark “cannot defend” Greenland, citing weaknesses in their military and economy, that it should not have claims to the land. “To control a territory, you have to be able to defend a territory, improve a territory, inhabit a territory,” Miller said. “Denmark has failed at every single one of these tests.”
If a land is not covered with mines and factories and highways, clearly it’s being neglected, and therefore should be taken.
If a land is not bristling with fortresses and air bases, clearly it’s not being defended, and therefore should be taken.
(Never mind that Greenland has existed in its current state for many, many decades, and during much warmer conflict between the US and the Soviet Union, and yet was never invaded by the Russians, nor annexed by the US. We had more military bases there — but, remarkably, that’s not currently seen as an option now.)
The president’s political adviser claimed the U.S. was already on the hook to spend “hundreds of billions of dollars” to defend Denmark as a NATO ally. “It’s a raw deal, it’s an unfair deal, and most importantly, it’s unfair to the American taxpayer, who has subsidized all of Europe’s defense for generations now,” he told “Hannity.”
If we do something for them, they are morally obligated to give us stuff. Which is a remarkable moral stance as well.
But this is how the US government — at least the Unitary Executive — works. Kindness, compassion, even fairness — those are for wusses. Only force — threatened, then used — garners respect and obedience and profit. Why should respect and obedience and profit be given? Because we say so.
Bullying is not an uncommon human trait, sadly enough. The difference here is that the bullies themselves are asserting it as a moral imperative. They have (as they have demonstrated clearly over the last decade-plus) no shame. They will baldly point the gun, say hand me your wallet, take it, and laugh.
It certainly plays well with the The US is the greatest country on Earth, so we should be in charge crowd of jingoists that we always seem to be afflicted with — and who never question what “greatest” means beyond just “powerful”? The questions before us are, will everyone else actually recognize the dangers of the Regime’s actions and motivations … and will we actually get a chance to correct it?