Summary

Trump renewed calls for the US to annex Greenland for “national security” reasons during an Oval Office briefing, claiming “I think it will happen.”

Greenland’s outgoing Prime Minister Múte Egede responded on Facebook: “Enough is enough,” and planned to summon all Greenland’s political parties for a joint rejection.

Likely incoming Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen also called Trump’s statement “inappropriate.”

Trump also undermined Denmark’s claim to Greenland, saying it was “very far away and really has nothing to do” with the island.

Danish Defense Committee Chairman Rasmus Jarlov warned that US annexation “would mean war between two NATO countries.”

  • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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    11 hours ago

    Also strategic control of the melting and ever more passable Arctic, along with Russia. This also partly explains why Trump wants Canada.

    Google Earth screenshot

    • officermike@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      A sane president who values geopolitical allies would just work out a deal with the host country to install more military bases in the region of concern, rather than burning every partnership we have by being aggressively expansionist.

      • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        A sane president who values geopolitical allies would just work out a deal with the host country to install more military bases in the region of concern, rather than burning every partnership we have by being aggressively expansionist.

        Dismissing it as insanity undermines the culpability of what Trump is doing.

        The point isn’t whatever ‘national security!’ bullshit they’re putching it as, the point is to piss of Greenland to the point of severing our relationship with them. Same with the shit he’s doing to Canada, Panama, etc.

        Trump’s goal is to weaken the US, and he’s accomplishing that in part by cutting us off from our allies.

      • toadjones79@lemm.ee
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        9 hours ago

        But an insane president will bluster about things he doesn’t want to actually do (like Canada and Greenland) as a distraction to keep us focused on this nonsense while he raids the government coffers for all the retirement money he can get his grubbly diseased hands on.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        I’m betting he wants to charge fees for ships traversing the northwest passage, and he wants that revenue to go to the US, not Canada or Greenland/Denmark.

    • Mandrilleren@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      They already have strategic control over Greenland. Denmark would let the USA do almost whatever they want on greenland.

      Denmark probably were the USAs biggests bitch in Europe until they started threatening Greenlands sovereignity.

      • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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        3 hours ago

        Just another case of Trump apparently not understanding that you can be powerful in other ways than bullying and threatening people, and often more powerful. Or it’s all in the service of furthering Putin’s agenda and weakening the West. Or both.