Trump’s Strikes on Greenland Seem to Be Backfiring

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For greater than 150 years, U.S. officers have been making an attempt, as President Trump places it, to “get” Greenland.

The concept got here up within the 1860s, then once more earlier than and after the world wars. In a manner, the timing couldn’t be higher than now, with Greenlanders re-examining their painful colonial historical past underneath Denmark and plenty of itching to interrupt off from Denmark, which nonetheless controls among the island’s affairs.

However President Trump appears to have overplayed his playing cards — huge time.

His choice, introduced this weekend, to ship a high-powered U.S. delegation to the island, apparently uninvited, is already backfiring. The administration tried to current it as a pleasant journey, saying that Usha Vance, the spouse of Vice President JD Vance, would attend a dogsled race this week with one in all their sons and that Michael Waltz, the nationwide safety adviser, would tour an American army base.

However as an alternative of profitable the hearts and minds of Greenland’s 56,000 folks, the transfer, coupled with Mr. Trump’s latest assertion that “in some way, we’re going to get it,” is pushing Greenland additional away.

Over the previous 24 hours, the Greenlandic authorities has dropped its posture of being shy and imprecise within the face of Mr. Trump’s pushiness. As a substitute, it blasted him as “aggressive” and requested Europe for backup. And the deliberate go to might solely strengthen the bonds between Greenland — an ice-covered land 3 times the dimensions of Texas — and Denmark.

“This may clearly have the other impact of what the People need,” stated Lars Trier Mogensen, a political analyst based mostly in Copenhagen. “This offensive pushes Greenland additional away from the U.S., despite the fact that a yr in the past, all events in Greenland have been wanting ahead to extra enterprise with the People.”