After Venezuela, what next? There seems no end to Trump's megalomaniac imperialist tendencies, and his administration seems completely unwilling or unable to reign him in.
So: Colombia? Cuba? Greenland? Iran? Mexico? Canada? Trump talked about all of these countries and "failed states" in an unhinged presser after the Venezuela coup.
Perhaps the most likely next target is Greenland, and this has set alarm bells ringing like no other. Trump has repeatedly reiterated his "need" for Greenland: "We do need Greenland, absolutely". A White House statement made the rampant US position very clear: "The President and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal and, of course, utilizing the US military is always an option at the Commander-In-Chief's disposal". Of course.
Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, has been since 1814. It is therefore part of the European Union and part of NATO. And there's the rub. A major member of the NATO alliance claiming the sovereign territory of another member is uncharted territory, and may well spell the beginning of the end of the alliance. As Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen put it, "If the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops". Trump appears not to care about that prospect, but the rest of the world certainly does. And the likes of Russia and China definitely care. The alliance seems all but paralyzed at the moment, uncertain how seriously to take Trump's threats.
The answer is "very seriously". In a late night Truth Social post, Trump has declared that Greenland is now an American "protectorate", and who is to say him nay? If he says it, is it true? No-one was ever quite sure if Trump planned to acquire Greenland, which he insists he "needs" for national security reasons, by force, coercion or just by buying off the population with bribes. But maybe he doesn't need to resort to any of those tactics.
Trump has repeatedly said that the US needs Greenland "for defense", and that it is "covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place". And the USA does have a military base there, focussing on missile detection and space surveillance. But many analysts think that Trump's obsessiveness about Greenland is more to do with its natural resources, particularly rare earth minerals.
A complicating factor is that a majority of Greenlanders do in fact support seceding from Denmark. But an even greater majority rejects the idea of becoming part of the US.
Militarily, neither Denmark nor any other NATO would be able to resist the USA. As one European official out it: "We're won't be able to defend Greenland. Are you kidding?" But, as the German Foreign Minister pointed out recently, technically Greenland falls under Article 5 of the NATO agreement, which states that an attack on one member is an attack on all, and the other members are obliged to respond. So, NATO would be at war with the USA?
Politically and diplomatically, many countries are making their positions clear. Just yesterday, the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Denmark came together to issue a joint statement saying, "Greenland belongs to its people, and only Denmark and Greenland can decide on matters concerning their relations". Even Canada's notoriously circumspect Prime Minister Mark Carney has come out publicly to say that "the future of Greenland is a decision for Greenland and Denmark exclusively", and moved to establish a new Canadian consulate on the island.
All of this is if course true, but what is the practical import of such declarations? None of the tub-thumping coming from other supportive members is realistically going to have any impact at all on a man who only hears what he wants to hear, and who is oblivious to any normal logical, or even legal, arguments.
The indications of Trump's intentions have been there all along. At first, it seemed like a throwaway line, poor-taste joke of the kind he excels in, kind of like calling Canada the 51st state. But sometimes those jokes become real threats. Next he despatched Trump Jr. to do a recce of the place, needless of the bad optics. Then he installed Louisian Governor Jeff Landry as his "special envoy" to Greenland (Landry calls it a "volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the US"). And now Stephen Miller's annoying wife is posting pictures of Greenland swathed in the Stars and Stripes on X. The writing seems to be on the wall of a thousand Facebook accounts.
If Trump play his trump card by tying US possession of Greenland to American security guarantees for Ukraine, and even interrupting intelligence sharing and weapons sales to the Ukraine cause, as some suggest he is likely to do in the next few days, then NATO'S goose is all but cooked. What a mess!
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