Ivo Daalder
A few weeks ago, when Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen spoke with soon-to-be U.S. President Donald Trump about his insistence on making Greenland part of America, the phone call didn’t go well.
She understood America’s defense concerns, but Greenland wasn’t for sale, she said. Trump was having none of it.
The call between these two equally obdurate leaders not only revealed a clash of interests but a clash of realities: Frederiksen’s reality is the rules-based order, a world where nations are expected to abide by treaties, rules and norms. Whereas Trump’s reality is the world of power politics, where the strong do as they will and the weak — even allied nations — do as they must.
Until that phone call, most had dismissed Trump’s musings about Greenland (and the Panama Canal) as bluster and tough talk meant to set the stage for negotiations. No one took the idea of the U.S. seizing the territory of an ally by force seriously.
But that was a big mistake. This time around, Trump is serious, and he’s no longer surrounded by his former aides whose job it was to steer him away from crazy ideas. Rather, his current cadre is a team of loyalists, who see it as their job to implement whatever their leader wants — and what he wants is Greenland.
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