Skip to content

Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

American Gestapo

Published by Tom Sullivan on January 16, 2026

Joe Rogan: “Are we really gonna be the gestapo?”

Violent gangs of masked thugs are terrorizing American cities. It’s all on video. That would be fodder for weeks of breathless Fox News punditry if they weren’t issued badges and guns by the Trump administration, or if they were marching north in Mexico toward the U.S. border. Anti-ICE protesters set alight a Waymo in Los Angeles and the EXISTENTIAL THREAT claxons go off on the American right. But DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s bumbling stormtroopers triple-tap a Minneapolis mother, killing her, or send a child who’s stopped breathing to the hospital, or put out a protester’s eye, and American fascists get all moist between the thighs.

“Politically idiosyncratic” bro-caster Joe Rogan has become a huge critic of the Trump administration’s ethnic cleansing/retribution efforts.

“You don’t want militarized people in the streets just roaming around, snatching up people, many of which turn out to be U.S. citizens that just don’t have their papers on them,” Rogan said. “Are we really gonna be the gestapo?” Rogan asked. “Where’s your papers—is that what we’ve come to?”

Why, yes. Yes, we have.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that on Thursday outside the White House (via Daily Beast, “ICE Barbie Warns Americans Must Be Prepared to Prove Citizenship”):

“In every situation, we are doing targeted enforcement. If we are on a target and doing an operation, there may be individuals surrounding that criminal that we may be asking who they are and why they’re there and validate their identity,” Noem claimed. “That’s what we’ve always done in asking people who they are so that we know who’s in those surroundings.”

She said if they are breaking the law, they will be detained them, “until we’ve run that processing.”

The least our American Gestapo can do is make the demand using the accent. (Yes, I know this guy is SS):

More than 80 House Democrats have signed articles of impeachment against Noem.

“Utterly dystopian. If I had accused Republicans of wanting this world 5 years ago, I’d have been accused of lying and exaggerating,” tweeted Cato’s David Bier.

Renee Good was not the first to die after an encounter with Noem’s secret police. Here is a slide show of others who died in ICE custody.

The death in Texas of one of those people, Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, could soon be under investigation as a homicide (The Washington Post):

An employee of El Paso County’s Office of the Medical Examiner told Lunas Campos’s daughter this week that, subject to results of a toxicology report, the office is likely to classify the death as a homicide, according to a recording of the conversation.

In the recording, which the daughter shared with The Washington Post, the employee said a doctor there “is listing the preliminary cause of death as asphyxia due to neck and chest compression,” which means Lunas Campos did not get enough oxygen because of pressure on his neck and chest. Pending the results of a toxicology report, the staffer said on the recording, “our doctor is believing that we’re going to be listing the manner of death as homicide.”

A 55-year-old Cuban immigrant, Lunas Campos died following a struggle with detention staff, according to an eyewitness account and an internal ICE document reviewed by The Post.

Tricia McLaughlin, DHS spokesliar and Karoline Leavitt wannabe, claims…. What she claims is not worth repeating.

Lunas Campos’s record is not clean, but did not merit a death sentence:

Court records show Lunas Campos was convicted of several crimes, including for aggravated assault with a weapon and, in 2003, first-degree sexual abuse involving a child under 11 years old. ICE arrested Lunas Campos in a “planned enforcement operation” in July, saying in a news release that his criminal record spanned from at least 1997 through 2015 and that “his luck has finally run out.

The Post indicates that recent events have “raised questions” about the recruitment and training of ICE agents. We’ve seen this week that their vetting efforts are slipshod at best. Virtually nonexistent. What’s more, ICE is explicitly targeting men who, put colloquially want to get their rocks off knocking heads (The Guardian):

“They’re aiming for that sweet spot of people who’ve got something to prove, who want to have that power, under the guise of patriotism,” Americus Reed, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, told the Post.

ICE’s controversial ads have leaned heavily on American symbolism – Uncle Sam, George Washington, Lady Liberty – while casting immigrants as bad actors to convince potential deportation officers to apply.

Heidi Beirich, a co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, sees neo-Nazi and white supremacist memes and symbology in government recruitment materials (The Guardian):

“It’s absolutely shocking to see such images being deployed by this administration,” said Beirich. “The idea appeals to racists and white supremacists who think only white people should be in positions of power.”

Recently, DHS recruitment posters have been likened to Third Reich propaganda, while Elon Musk – a onetime government worker during his reign as the head of the so-called “department of government efficiency” – has outright race-baited Somali Americans, who are the main target of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in the Twin Cities.

“I’m not sure if this is trolling or distraction, but there certainly have been more of them,” said Beirich, referring to the onslaught of Maga posting. “More worrisome, especially when it comes to DHS recruitment messages, is that they perhaps are trying to attract far-right extremists to join ICE.”

This is why this week I shifted from more anodyne messages to urging action … now.

HAVE Y’ALL HAD ENUF?
AND YOU’RE DOING??

(h/t DJ)

The Shadow President

Published by Tom Sullivan on January 16, 2026

The Insurrection Act, helluva twofer

“Stephen Miller was perhaps the most concerned about the portrait session. He asked me, “Should I smile or not smile?” and I said, “How would you want to be portrayed?” We agreed that we would do a bit of both. And then when we were finished, he comes up to me to shake my hand and say goodbye. And he says to me, “You know, you have a lot of power in the discretion you use to be kind to people.” And I looked at him and I said, “You know, you do too”.
~ Christopher Anderson, Vanity Fair

Shadow President Stephen Miller is itching to invoke the Insurrection Act his boss has fantasized about for years. Trump wants it now as part of his retribution campaign against anyone and everyone (“I am your retribution.”), but also as a way of suppressing the vote in fall congressional elections. Trump expects to lose control of the House, at a minimim, and face another inpeachment. Miller is just waiting for the right moment to yank Trump’s chain.

Democracy Docket:

“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT,” the president wrote Thursday on Truth Social.

Rep. Veronica Escobar(D) of Texas responds to the threat:

“We knew this was part of his plan all along, and my fear—and I think the fear of many members of Congress and communities across the country—is that he will use the Insurrection Act during the midterm elections to suppress the vote…”

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D):

Pritzker: The feds are supposed to be fighting to protect your civil rights, not to take them away. And the Insurrection Act is designed only for circumstances where your rights can’t be protected by local authorities or by whatever federal authorities are already there. Only then can federal troops be brought in to protect your civil rights. This is exactly the opposite. It’s like they’ve turned it on its head. Your civil rights are being infringed upon by CBP and ICE, and then they want to call in troops on top of that—not to protect your civil rights, but claiming that they’re protecting CBP and ICE. And it’s just false.

I don’t know if this can be stopped, or how widespread it could be. Trump cannot by law prevent elections, but the law seems of little concern to him, doesn’t it? And to Miller.

Did You Ever Think You’d See Something Like This In 2026?

Published by digby on January 15, 2026

Interestingly, in the bad old days, the states were the ones terrorizing their citizens and the right wing defending states’ rights. Now it’s the federal government terrorizing the citizens of a state, the same threat the right wingers have been caterwauling about forever, and they’re all yelling “yeah!” This threat was the reason citizens needed to have all those guns, remember?

Yeah, it was always bullshit. They want guns to kill people like us whether they’re in the hands of the federal government or it’s some individual mowing down Black people in a grocery store. That’s what the second amendment really means to them.

By the way, 62 years ago yesterday, another Governor gave a speech:

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. How different is that from what Trump and Miller are saying today?

It Doesn’t Get Any Dumber Than This

Published by digby on January 15, 2026

The Atlantic on the right’s most idiotic (and possibly most consequential) conspiracy theory:

In the days after American commandos raided Nicolás Maduro’s compound and whisked him out of Venezuela, Mike Lindell wasn’t ruminating about the dramatic military operation or oil prices—he was reviving a long-dead conspiracy theory.

Lindell, better known as the “MyPillow guy,” was celebrating because, in his telling, a possible witness to the theory that Venezuela conspired with election-equipment companies to rig the 2020 presidential election against Donald Trump was now in U.S. custody. “I’m hoping now that Maduro will actually come clean and tell us everything about the machines and how they steal the elections,” Lindell, who has long espoused election falsehoods, told me the day after the Venezuelan dictator’s arraignment.

The supposition boils down to this: Venezuela plotted with election-equipment and -technology companies to engineer Trump’s defeat in 2020. There is no credible evidence to support this. But with Maduro in U.S. custody months before the midterms and the Trump administration investigating the 2020 election, an idea that had been disproved by facts and debunked in lawsuits has been revived, with a newsy twist: Now Maduro will prove from a New York jail that Trump defeated Joe Biden.

Since Maduro’s capture, Trump has shared a raft of discredited election-fraud claims on his Truth Social site, including one tied to a company central to the Venezuela conspiracy. A top Justice Department official helped harden the narrative: Ed Martin, the United States pardon attorney (who also directs the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group, which pursues retribution against Trump’s perceived political enemies), promoted the idea that Maduro could offer crucial information to substantiate the stolen-election theory once and for all. Martin reposted on X a claim that Maduro could try “to plead to lesser charges by proffering evidence that the 2020 election was stolen,” adding “!”

The right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson, an extremely online Trump-administration ally, claimed that Maduro “is in possession” of evidence against election-equipment companies. “Maduro might be Trump’s final revenge for the election theft of 2020,” Johnson told his audience. “If he begins to sing like a canary—which he will; they always do—then who will he give up?” Johnson added: “This is why they took him alive.”

I mentioned this before but it really seems to be getting legs on the right. I’m sure you recall that this bs was the basis of the lawsuit that cost Fox New almost a billion dollars. But they just keep going.

I do wonder why Maduro wouldn’t just make some stuff up. He’s clearly being given a free shot at doing so and I’m quite sure he knows about it. Bondi and Blanche might even give him a plea deal or Trump could pardon him outright.

It just never ends.

Everything, Everywhere, All At Once

Published by digby on January 15, 2026

Here are the highlights of the latest Reuter’s interview with Trump:

Trump repeatedly dismissed concerns by the public, business leaders and even his fellow Republicans on issues ranging from the future of Greenland and the criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, to the state of the economy.

When told that a Reuters/Ipsos poll found tepid support among Americans for taking control of Greenland, Trump called the poll “fake.”

“I don’t care,” he responded when asked about the pushback by some Senate Republicans against the investigation into Powell. “I don’t care,” he said again, when reminded of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s concerns that White House interference in the Fed could harm the economy.

When asked about Americans’ worries about high prices, Trump reiterated that the economy was the strongest “in history” and said he had to do a better job of promoting his achievements. (He referred to a specially prepared thick binder that listed his accomplishments in office.)

The president suggested that he follows his own compass. “A lot of times, you can’t convince a voter,” he said. “You have to just do what’s right. And then a lot of the things I did were not really politically popular. They turned out to be when it worked out so well.”

[…]

Despite his claim that he had brought peace to the Middle East, Trump conceded that Hamas had still not disarmed – a condition of the ceasefire agreement – and it was unclear whether they would. “They were born with a gun in the hand,” he said. “So, we’re gonna have to find out whether or not we’re gonna be able to get it done.”

What???? Did he actually admit that he’s a lying sack of shit? No, not really. But here he is admitting that his big victory lap in the middle east was bullshit. If only the people of America knew about this.

Here he is showing some squeamishness about what’s happening in Minneapolis. I think this could be a way in on this. Miller is way out of control and I’m not sure that DleepyDon is fully aware:

Trump appeared to express some sympathy for the death of Renee Nicole Good, after an ICE agent shot and killed her last week in Minneapolis, calling it “a very unfortunate incident.” Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, labeled Good a domestic terrorist.

But even so, he made clear he was standing behind his choice to send militarized officers into American cities.

“I know that it was a tough situation to be in. There was very little respect shown to the police, in this case, the ICE officers,” Trump said.

He said he would continue sending armed agents into cities, claiming that his efforts had taken “thousands of murderers out of our country.” There is no evidence to support that assertion.

And here you have him saying that we shouldn’t have an election this year:

The president expressed frustration that his Republican Party could lose control of the U.S. House of Representatives or the Senate in this year’s midterm elections, citing historical trends that have seen the party in power lose seats in the second year of a presidency.

“It’s some deep psychological thing, but when you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms,” Trump said. He boasted that he had accomplished so much that “when you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.”

I doubt that means we won’t have one. He doesn’t yet have a way to do that. But if there’s a major terrorist attack or something else that’s truly catastrophic, who knows? More likely they will contest it and with the Supreme Court majority being what it is, it’s certainly possible that they will find a way to deny the Democrats the majority. That’s unlikely, however, and we have no choice but to assume otherwise.

He’s living in denial about his popularity and I think he’s fading so quickly that it’s only going to get worse.

“They Hate White People”

Published by digby on January 15, 2026
Renee Good

In case you were wondering what MAGA is saying about Minnesota:

MAGA influencer Steve Bannon suggested that President Donald Trump should invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota because “they hate white people” in the state.

After Trump threatened to use the law to send troops to Minnesota, Bannon opened his Thursday War Room show with a full-throated endorsement of the idea.

“We demand mass deportations!” Bannon exclaimed. “Not the onesies, twosies you’re seen in Minnesota. You haven’t seen anything yet. We’re the biggest advocate of invoking the Insurrection Act and going in and cleaning out the mess.”

“And what you see in Minnesota is an act of — they hate America, they hate American citizens, dare I say they hate white people?” he continued. “We have said for a long time, this is where the rubber meets the road, this is where the fight’s going to be. Bring it.”

“And that scum in the streets, bring it. Let’s invoke the Insurrection Act and let’s do it today. Let’s get up there and clean out that mess.”

Yeah, Minnesota hates white people. Can he hear himself? Minnesota? Has he seen who is protesting there?

Minnesota has a predominantly White population around 75-78%, Black around 7%, Asian around 5%, Hispanic/Latino around 6-7%, and Two or More Races around 4-5%.

It’s so idiotic I don’t know what to say.

Bannon and his ilk are promoting a race war which is pretty much where we’ve been headed since Trump came down that escalator 10 years ago.

Let Them Eat A Piece Of Broccoli

Published by digby on January 15, 2026

Brooke Rollins: "We've run over 1,000 simulations. It can cost around $3 a meal for a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, corn tortilla, and one other thing. So there is a way to do this that actually will save the average American consumer money."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-01-14T21:23:23.777Z

How helpful. I’m sure the American people are very grateful for this advice.

Remember this?.

Back in 2010, then–first lady Michelle Obama launched a nefarious scheme to turn school cafeterias into liberal indoctrination zones. Or at least that’s how Obama’s right-wing opponents portrayed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, a law she spearheaded that gave the National School Lunch Program its first nutritional update in more than 15 years. Her treachery included requirements for more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and limits on calories in meals. “Here’s Michelle Obama trying to take over the school lunch program,” Rush Limbaugh warned his radio audience. Media outlets flaunted photos of kids dumping their lunches into the trash, supposedly taken after the reforms went into effect. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) sponsored a bill to nullify the nutrition rules in 2012, decrying what he called a “misguided nanny state” that “would put every child on a diet.”

I wrote about this way back in 2015. Here’s a Limbaugh quote from that piece:

LIMBAUGH: Michelle My Belle, minus the husband, took the kids out to Vail on a ski vacation, and they were spotted eating and they were feasting on ribs, ribs that were 1,575 calories per serving with 141 grams of fat per serving. Now I’m sure some of you members of the new castrati: “This is typical of what you do Mr. Limbaugh, you take an isolated, once in a lifetime experience, and try to say that she’s a hypocrite.” She is a hypocrite. Leaders are supposed to be leaders. If we’re supposed to go out and eat nothing — if we’re supposed to eat roots, and berries and tree bark and so show us how. And if it’s supposed to make us fit, if it’s supposed to make us healthier, show us how.

The problem is — and dare I say this — it doesn’t look like Michelle Obama follows her own nutritionary, dietary advice. And then we hear that she’s out eating ribs at 1,500 calories a serving with 141 grams of fat per serving, yeah it does — what do you mean, what do I mean?

What is it – no, I’m trying to say that our First Lady does not project the image of women that you might see on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, or of a woman Alex Rodriguez might date every six months or what have you. I mean, women are under constant pressure to look lithe, and Michelle My Belle is out there saying if you eat the roots and tree bark and the berries and all this cardboard stuff you will live longer, be healthier and you won’t be obese. Okay, fine, show us.

Rush wasn’t the only one. Back when she was still a big GOP star and presumptive presidential candidate, Sarah Palin was very upset over a speech Obama gave in which she talked about how things were different when she was kid:

While making s’mores at one point during Sunday’s [reality show] episode, the former Alaska governor proclaims the marshmallow and chocolate treat is “in honor of Michelle Obama, who said the other day we should not have dessert.”

It’s not the first time Palin has taken a jab at Mrs. Obama over her campaign to discourage fattening foods, especially from public schools. The former vice presidential nominee told conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham last month that “the first lady cannot trust parents to make decisions for their own children, for their own families in what we should eat.”

Palin also hand-delivered cookies to a Pennsylvania school last month before delivering a speech there, saying: “Who should be deciding what I eat? Should it be government or should it be parents? It should be the parents.”

Obviously, those people were racist pigs, but consider that today the administration isn’t just talking about school lunches today, they’re talking about feeding families with $3 a meal which includes “a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, one tortilla and “one other thing” as if that’s a full meal for anyone but a 4 year old.

So, are they out of touch? Oh yeah:

It’s Not Ideology, It’s Tyranny

Published by digby on January 15, 2026

Two weeks into the new year, the Trump administration has already deposed a foreign leader, bombed several countries, threatened to invade several more, unleashed a secret police force on the city of Minneapolis — killing one protester, shooting an immigrant in the leg and brutalizing many others — and started a criminal investigation, based on bogus evidence, on the chair of the Federal Reserve. It’s a lot. So perhaps it’s not entirely surprising that Donald Trump giving a two-hour interview to the New York Times has been somewhat ignored. 

That’s too bad. Considering all those events and more, the conversation is an interesting insight into his thinking. As much as we think we know about how his mind works, the president’s interview with four Times reporters showed that he has evolved into something much more dangerous than he was in his first term. 

Many Americans have finally wrapped their minds around the idea that we are dealing with a presidency and political movement that can be defined as authoritarian, and even fascist. But after observing Trump over the past year and seeing how he responds to an interview in which the reporters have the time and opportunity to ask follow-up questions, it is clear that those are not the underlying principles that are guiding this presidency. 

The better definition for Trumpism is an ancient word that should nonetheless be familiar to anyone who recalls the founding ideals of this country: tyranny.

The better definition for Trumpism is an ancient word that should nonetheless be familiar to anyone who recalls the founding ideals of this country: tyranny. Plato saw it as an inevitable consequence of democracy, when a quest for freedom leads to excess and the populace demands a strongman. He defined it, more or less, as rule for himself rather than the common good, maintained under a system of fear and violence, and characterized by repression of the citizenry — particularly those who are educated and ethical — while relying on lackeys to carry out the tyrant’s wishes and whims. 

Plato’s student Aristotle agreed that tyranny was the worst of all possible worlds, but he disagreed that it was the unavoidable outcome of democracy, stressing that the rule of law could mitigate the excesses of the people and tyrant alike. Centuries later, having studied the classics, many leaders of the American Revolution saw King George III as a classic tyrant, and so they fashioned the Constitution around the Aristotelian idea that systems and laws could prevent their new democracy from drifting into tyranny. 

The United States has been remarkably lucky that, throughout its 250-year evolution, that assumption had not been seriously tested by any of its leaders until now. Certainly, there have been imperious, corrupt, domineering leaders in our past, but no one has embodied that special brand of ignorance, ego and total self-interest that Donald Trump is bringing to the Oval Office in his second term as president. The rule of law, and our system of checks and balances, have turned out to be quite weak in the face of a man who has no concept of what those are and who operates purely out of greed and self-regard. 

You can see this in Trump’s character every day. He is not interested in ideology or philosophy. The president believes in himself and himself alone, and he has been so successful at evading all accountability for everything he’s done in his life that he sees himself as invulnerable. That has freed him to rule completely by whim. 

The Times interview, at more than 23,000 words, is a long slog featuring all the usual self-aggrandizement, insults about his enemies — he mentions Joe Biden in derogatory terms 28 times — incessant blaming and whining, and all manner of lies and fantasies that are untethered from the real world. At times, such as when he is talking about his plans for a White House ballroom, Trump sounds ridiculous, and he often seems to be out of the loop. But there is something new in this interview that we haven’t ever seen so plainly expressed, and it’s important.

Katie Rogers asked, “Do you see any checks on your power on the world stage? Is there anything that could stop you if you wanted to?” 

Trump replied, “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me, and that’s very good.” 

“Not international law?” Zolan Kanno-Youngs asked. 

“I don’t need international law,” the president said. “I’m not looking to hurt people.” 

Following that exchange, Trump carried on about how he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for ending eight wars and proving, at least in his mind, that he can be trusted to always do the right thing. 

When asked why he feels the need to “own” Greenland rather than use the existing treaties to get the same benefits, he replied that ownership was psychologically important for him and that he’s always been right about everything. He indicated throughout the interview that he sees no constraints upon him by courts, treaties, agreements or laws, signaling that he plans to act where and when he chooses. And if there is any impediment, he will either ignore it or go around it. 

Trump is making billions as president, and he isn’t trying to hide it. When asked why he reversed course from his first term and is allowing his family company to make deals all over the world in blatant and direct conflicts of interest, he said simply, “Because I found out that nobody cared. I’m allowed to.”

There are dozens of examples in the interview illustrating his belief that he can do anything he wants, and we are seeing that played out every day in Washington and around the country. The president has unleashed thousands of masked, armed officers on the streets of American cities, and they are battering immigrants and citizens alike, creating a climate of fear that he and his followers use to push even more boundaries. He claims they are doing it for the public good, ginning up one phony crisis after another to justify his actions. 

This is not ideology at work. It certainly has a fascistic and authoritarian character, and there are people around him who fit that description perfectly. But Donald Trump is the ultimate decider, and he cannot be said to have any belief in anything but himself. He is ruling by threats and extortion, period. 

He is a tyrant. 

We’ve witnessed the capitulation of the Republican Party and institutions such as law firms, media companies and universities, and we’ve observed opportunists playing the system for their own ends — all of which proves that, for all their world-weary skepticism about humanity’s inherent virtue, the founders greatly overestimated the strength of the average politician or the businessman’s ego and ambition. They thought those who were in competing spheres of power would fight for their own prerogatives, but it’s clear that’s actually quite a rare occurrence when it comes to facing down a tyrant. The most ambitious among them just want a piece of the action. 

The real courage is coming from ordinary people on the streets who are facing down Trump’s secret police and brandishing nothing more than cell phones to document the officers’ savage behavior. It may just be that the average citizens who are brave enough to fight for their prerogatives to pursue life, liberty and happiness are the honorable leaders Plato believed were the only ones capable of running a virtuous state. If so, this suggests that while democracy may have its weaknesses, it is also the best hope for saving itself. 

Salon

Moron-In-Chief

Published by Tom Sullivan on January 15, 2026

Trump is what the 25th Amendment is for

On an isolated family farm in Peakesville, Ohio, young Anthony Fremont, who has vast mental powers but lacks emotional development, holds his terrified family and neighbors in thrall to his every juvenile wish. IMDB

The U.S. does not need to possess Greenland for national security reasons. Donald Trump, backed by his band of imperialist bootlickers, wants to possess it for “personal problem” reasons. Or else for Vladimir Putin’s reasons.

The New York Times’ David E. Sanger explained to the president that by treaty the U.S. has access to expand or build new bases in Greenland for defense purposes. Why does he insist that the U.S. own it?

President Trump

Really it is, to me, it’s ownership. Ownership is very important.

David E. Sanger

Why is ownership important here?

President Trump

Because that’s what I feel is psychologically needed for success. I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can’t do, whether you’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document, that you can have a base.

The man is an avaricious moron.

Trump stated again on Wednesday:

Q: Are Greenland’s limits going to be respected?

TRUMP: Well, we’re gonna see what happens with Greenland. We need Greenland for national security. If we don’t go in Russia is gonna go in and China is gonna go in. And there’s not a thing that Denmark can do about it. But we can do everything about it

We, along with NATO member states, Denmark included, can do “everything about it” right now. An invasion of Greenland by Russia or China is unthinkable. It would mean World War III, one which would advantage Russia’s and China’s territorial ambitions. Unless Trump himself orders U.S. forces to attack the territory of another NATO country (Denmark) and sparks one himself.

Malcolm Nance, former naval intelligence officer, foreign policy analyst and pundit, on Monday described in scathing detail what a fool move Trump is contemplating. In his best-case scenario, “NATO stays together but without us.” If the alliance holds, 31 countries go to war with the United States over Donald Trump’s psychological problems. That is unless a mass refusal by our professional military to obey illegal orders stops it before it starts. (Fingers crossed, if it comes to that.)

A 21st century ‘Twilight Zone’

Our NATO allies stand aghast watching their once steadfast ally led by a madman (France 24):

European countries were sending small numbers of military personnel to Greenland on Thursday as Denmark and its allies prepared for ⁠exercises to try to assure US President Donald Trump of its security as he pushes to acquire the island.

A meeting of officials from the United States, Denmark and Greenland on Wednesday avoided the type of public humiliation meted out to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last year, but also produced no quick fix for the dispute.

“The American ambition to take over Greenland is intact,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen ​said in a written comment to Reuters on Thursday, describing a “fundamental disagreement”.

“That is of course serious, and therefore we continue our efforts to prevent this scenario becoming a reality.”

[…]

Germany, France, Sweden and Norway have said they are sending military staff to begin preparations for larger drills later this year.

All this because a petulant man-child lacking “vast mental powers” but with command of the world’s mightiest military threatens to wish the post-war order into “the cornfield” should it refuse to publicly bow and scrape before his every whim the way cowed members of his cabinet do.

“Russia’s objective is not seizing NATO territory but causing the collapse of the alliance,” write Elena Davlikanova and Yevhenii Malik for The Atlantic Council. If, as some allege, Trump were actually a Russian asset, would he be acting any differently? Perhaps more critically, in 25th Amendment terms, does Trump lack the capacity to know the difference?

David French assesses Trump’s calculus regarding Greenland (if one could call it that) in the New York Times:

Bullying Denmark to seize Greenland would be the equivalent of threatening a friend to steal his car after he already let you borrow it. The friendly gesture is nice and all, but isn’t it better if the car is yours? Aren’t you wealthier if you can add it to your collection?

In the mercenary calculus of Donald Trump, morality is meaningless — unless it’s his morality, of course, and his morality places no constraints on his will to power and his greed.

Trump is what the 25th Amendment is for. If there are any leaders left in these United States with any courage, they need to agree, and to act on that agreement, to strip Trump of the powers he’s maliciously wielding before he destroys the North Atlantic Alliance and the post-war order, or before he puts somebody’s eye out.

Indeed, his goons have already accomplished the latter:

California anti-ICE demonstrator blinded in eye after federal agent fires projectile, aunt says