Trump and Putin on the same page
JV Last has a good piece today about Trump’s move on Greenland:
The visual was kind of hard to miss. The vice president of the United States, flanked by American soldiers in combat fatigues, talking about turning Greenland into an America possession.
And he did this from the ground in Greenland.
There’s no way to read this except as an act of belligerence. Perhaps not quite at the level of Vladimir Putin publishing “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians” in 2021. But in the same basic category.
Putin argued that Ukraine had historic ties to Russia; was vital to the security needs of Russia; and had been compromised by an evil political leadership who forced Russia to act.
Vance argued that Greenland has historic ties to the United States; that Greenland was vital to the security needs of the United States; and that Greenland had been compromised by feckless political leadership in Denmark.
This is how expansionist powers talk. They don’t say, “We want it.” They say that they have historical claims; that the coveted territory is vital to their “security”; that they’re just trying to keep the peace. That someone else is forcing their hand.
That was literally Putin’s rationale for sending troops into Luhansk and Donetsk in February 2022: “peacekeeping duties.” A couple days later those peacekeeping duties became a full-scale invasion.
I’ve made this point before but it’s worth reiterating. Trump wants Greenland because it’s in North America and he wants to claim the hemisphere for America and put himself on Mt Rushmore. But he sees Putin’s move on Greenland as a model for how to do it. It’s exactly as Last says. He fatuously insists he is just trying to provide security and keep the peace, even though there is really no threat and even if there were there are many ways to deal with it other than annexation.
Trump wants Greenland (and Canada) for the same reason Putin wants Ukraine (and the rest of Eastern Europe.) They see themselves as conquerors who will go down in history as leaders who expanded their empires. They are both out of their minds.
Last makes a number of important points about the fact that Europe is required to take all this very seriously, arm up and expand their own nuclear umbrella. What could be better than having many more nukes all over the world? I’m sure nothing will go wrong.
Speaking of alliances, get a look at this:
China, Japan and South Korea agreed to jointly respond to U.S. tariffs, a social media account affiliated with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said on Monday.
The comments came after the three countries held their first economic dialogue in five years on Sunday, seeking to facilitate regional trade as the Asian export powers brace against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Japan and South Korea are seeking to import semiconductor raw materials from China, and China is also interested in purchasing chip products from Japan and South Korea, the account, Yuyuan Tantian, said in a post on Weibo.
At this point, who could we consider an ally? I think North Korea, Hungary and Argentina might be the only ones. Well, Russia too as long as Putin has his puppet in the White House anyway.
But at least Donald Trump feels like a big strong man. That’s really all that matters.