Trump wants Greenland. It is a Danish dependency. So he wrote a letter to Norway’s Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, explaining why he has the ‘right’ to seize foreign territory from an ally. How he connects a supposed Norwegian insult with a Danish interest is anyone’s guess. That’s nuts enough. Then after reading it, many are further questioning how severe Trump’s mental deficits have become. As, even by Trump’s ground-brushing standards, the communiqué is insane.
Let’s have a look.
It starts informally with the PM’s first name. Which is appropriate if you send a note to a neighbor asking them to get their dog to stop barking. But which trashes diplomatic norms for a published statement from America’s head of state to another country’s head of government.
However, if poor form were Trump’s only sin, it would be ignorable. Everyone already knows the man is a boor. The insanity starts right after the salutation.
“Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”
Trump has no idea how the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. The Norwegian government does not decide the recipients. The Norwegian Nobel Committee chooses them.
What “8 Wars PLUS”? I’ll bet Trump couldn’t name them. Couldn’t define what qualifies as a war. And couldn’t say what he did to stop them.
If Trump no longer feels “an obligation to think purely of Peace” because he didn’t get an award he didn’t deserve, then let him invade Greenland. And leave America out of it.
And if he “can now think about what is good and proper” for the US, let him explain why peace is not good and proper for the country.
Trump’s pinball thinking then becomes even more helter-skelter. He writes:
Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China ...
Greenland is part of NATO. Neither Russia nor China has tried to invade. That would be nuts. China (at its closest point) is over 5,000 miles away. How the hell would they invade Greenland? They would have to fly over Russia. That ain’t happening. Or they would have to send a fleet through the Bering Sea. That ain’t happening either.
Russia's closest point is less than 1,000 miles from Greenland. But they would have to cross the Arctic Ocean. I’m no expert, but that seems problematic.
Trump then, in the same sentence, launches into a history whine:
… and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also.
I suspect there are “written documents.” And the Danish claim is based on more than “a boat.” It would be like saying that the English claim to parts of the American continent was based solely on the Mayflower landing there. And if by “we” he means the US, we are really Johnny-come-latelies. The Vikings landed in Greenland in 986. Some 800 years before the United States existed. Or more than 500 years before the next European settlement anywhere in the Americas.
Next, the farcical bloviator adds some self-congratulatory puffery. And a lie.
I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.
For all the hysteria engendered by the Cold War — which led to catastrophic military adventurism in places like Vietnam — Greenland, as a target of Russian or Chinese expansion, has not garnered any headlines.
Trump signs off
Thank you! President DJT”
If you start a letter with “Dear Jonas,” it is best to end it with “Thank you! Donald.” However, as stated above, if poor form was Trump’s only transgression, we could dismiss it as the inconsequential behavior of an uncouth boob. But it isn’t.
Trump is dangerous because what was once simply a toxic personality is now wedded to an aging brain in a man who has the nuclear codes and the power to use them.
Trump was so proud of his demented and disjointed screed that he also shared it with the representatives of several countries.
Dear Ambassador: President Trump has asked that the following message, shared with Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, be forwarded to your [named head of government/state]
Trump is like an angry guy who gets drunk at the beginning of a party. Not only is he disagreeable and violent in the moment, but the future looks even worse.
(Note: the original version of this diary said that Greenland is a Norwegian dependency. Apparently, Trump’s lack of grasp on reality is infectious.)
