After boasting that he would compel Europe to give him Greenland or impose tariffs on them, even implying a willingness to use force if necessary,Trump caved. First Trump said that he would not use force, then said that he would not impose the tariffs because he had arrived at some kind of deal. That turns out be (no surprise) a lie.
Donald Trump has walked back his threat to impose sweeping US tariffs on eight European countries, claiming he had agreed “the framework of a future deal” on Greenland at the same time a Danish lawmaker called the deal “not real”.
Four days after vowing to introduce steep import duties on a string of US allies over their support for Greenland’s continued status as an autonomous Danish territory, the president backed down.
…Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, a Greenlandic member of the Danish parliament, wrote on Facebook Wednesday night that, despite Trump’s claim of having struck an agreement over her homeland with Nato, the military alliance has no mandate to negotiate anything about Greenland. “Nothing about us, without us,” she wrote.
Amid rumors that a mineral deal might have been discussed by Trump and Rutte in Davos, Chemnitz Larsen called the idea that Nato should have anything to say about Greenland’s sovereignty or minerals “completely out of the question”.
Sascha Faxe, a member of Denmark’s parliament, said in an interview with Sky News on Wednesday evening, that the deal Trump claims to have struck with Nato over Greenland is “not real”.
“The thing is, there can’t be a deal without having Greenland as part of the negotiations, first of all,” Faxe said.
She went on to reference Chemnitz Larsen’s earlier comments, saying: “I have heard from the Greenlanders that I know – so we have a Greenlandic MP in Denmark – and she’s very clear that this is not a prerogative of Rutte and Nato; they can’t trade the underground in Greenland, or Greenlandic security without Greenlanders being part of it.
“And they are very clear: Greenland is not for sale, they are not up for negotiations,” Faxe added. “So it’s not real negotiations, it’s two men who have had a conversation,” she said. “It’s definitely not a deal.”
This shows that when the Europeans stand firm together, Trump becomes a paper tiger.
His climbdown on tariffs came hours after the European parliament suspended indefinitely the ratification of the US-EU tariff deal sealed last summer, in a move that showed politicians were, for the first time, willing to face Trump down.
When Trump says that he has a ‘framework’ or ‘concept’ of deal, it means that he has nothing and are words designed to hide a humiliating retreat. He is living up to the epithet given him of being ‘TACO’ where TACO stands for ‘Trump Always Chickens Out’.
The weak link for Europe seems to be NATO secretary general Mark Rutte who looks eager to appease Trump and acts like he can unilaterally negotiate on behalf of NATO. I suspect that the conversation that he had with Trump where Trump said that they had arrived at a deal was specifically designed to allow Trump to try and save face.
The Daily Show has a brilliant summary of the last two days.
“Trump Demands Greenland at Davos & Literally Trashes First-Year “Accomplishments”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=R4KnTdNsC8E
It’s quite possible that Trump thinks he has a deal, like how a toddler in the back seat with a toy steering wheel thinks they’re driving the car…
I’ve seen it claimed several times recently that when his father was losing his mind to dementia, they used to give him fake contracts to sign to keep him quiet. Make of that what you will.
The perspective from Britain: A different bias:
“Trump Chickens Out on Greenland Tariffs”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=mBFP5Ij7PwI
We actually all but own Greenland already.
Invading and occupying Greenland wouldn’t add much to the existing arrangements.
We took over Greenland during World War II when Denmark was occupied by Germany.
After the war, we signed the 1951 treaty giving the US extensive military rights to Greenland. At one time, the USA had 10 military bases in Greenland.
This was never about defense or stopping Russia and China. We already have that right.
We closed almost all of those bases because they were expensive to run in a harsh environment of ice and snow, and…we didn’t need them anyway.
The pretext about minerals is nonsense.
If Greenland had anything worth mining, chances are the companies doing the mining would be from the US anyway. Greenland doesn’t have a domestic mining industry.
And rare earth deposits are common. There is nothing special about Greenland’s except they are harder to get to.
# 3
Jimmy Kimmel:
“Pure Donsense!”
Eh. Well known fact that Trump changes his views to match whoever last flatters him (or promises him $$$)
Somewhat related -- Krugman doesnt like the TACO label -- https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/big-business-should-end-its-faustian .
Deepak @6, you’re certainly right about Trump’s changing blather. And, the Krugman article is saying that Trump doesn’t chicken out in every situation, but does when the opponents unite.
It sounds to me like the Europeans finally did unite and took some stands, or threatened to, that really would seriously injure Trump, and someone pointed that out to him.
So, Trump may not be back to this particular issue, although perhaps he’ll blather just to insist that he won. If not Greenland, though, he’ll go on to the next insane thing that will also fail, either for Trump or for Americans or for the world, bigly.
Yes, the EU leaders finally found their spines, thanks to Trump. Now that they know how to work him they will do it again. One more own goal by Trump.