Trump’s presentation at Davos was embarrassing. I began drafting this essay thinking I would direct blame for some of this administration’s self-inflicted chaos to Republicans in congress, cabinet members, and both official and unofficial advisors. It’s not that they deserve more blame than the Don for the costs, chaos and corruption of the government but I don’t think they get enough. I kept coming back to the fact that Donald J. Trump is president of the United States of America and they are not. The buck stops with him no matter how hard he tries to redirect it. So here it is, focused on the main driver.
I was embarrassed by the POTUS display at Davos. What I found most embarrassing was the fact that this man-child elected by my fellow citizens has virtually no understanding of the world. He may know how to make business deals that enrich him but he doesn’t know much else. Take geography for example. He appears to believe that the Mercator flat map projection gives an accurate perception of the size of continents. In fact, it makes everything nearer the poles appear much larger than they really are. Hence his preoccupation with Greenland. That and the fact that he has friends with business interests there. Also, he thinks that adding that much territory will enhance his legacy.
He also seems unaware of the ocean conditions in the far north. Greenland is in the middle of an ice pack. In winter it occupies the entire eastern and northern coasts and lurks to the west on Canadian shores. If a nation is to be successful protecting sea lanes, exploring, researching or commercializing Greenland and surrounding territory, it needs icebreakers. Big ones! Not for river ice but for Arctic sea ice. The US might have 2 capable icebreakers. The rest of NATO has between 30 and 45. Russia has in the neighborhood of 40-50. We are planning to build more. Seven more. Based a design from Finland. Pushing NATO away while trying to make a case for securing Greenland under these circumstances is at best self defeating.
Disparaging NATO activity during the Ahgan and Iraq wars should embarrass all veterans and any American who paid any attention at all to the news. Denmark lost more soldiers per capita supporting the US on the front lines than we did. I thank you NATO.
Another cost of pushing NATO allies away is that may cause them to consider creating a stronger European alliance that is less dependent on America. The European Union, which includes all the NATO nations in Europe, is the world’s largest market outside the US. China follows closely. If Europe is sufficiently worried by the saber rattling and decides to move closer to China or to expand markets in South America, Africa or South East Asia, it would be at the expense of the US.
By the way, federal funding for agencies that used to produce reports on sea conditions and ice concentration has been cut. The National Snow and Ice Data Center is no longer funded to produce reports on the extent and concentration of sea ice among others. If we are serious about defending Greenland, wouldn’t we want to know the latest and best information about conditions in the Arctic Ocean? This is an administration whose right hand that doesn’t appear to know what the left hand already did.
Trump also appears not to know or care that we already have an agreement with Denmark and Greenland that gives us free rein over our military operations in Greenland. We had many bases there from the 1950s until after the cold war. Those bases can be resurrected and we can build others in coordination with Denmark and Greenland. Instead of the chaos he created at Davos, he could have had agreement to proceed and we could be building or upgrading as many of the old facilities as we want or building new ones right now! Instead of maintaining warm relations with NATO countries, he managed to irritate almost everyone in Europe, especially in Greenland and Denmark. I wonder how that will work if we actually build new bases. Will we have to import all the workers because locals don’t want to work with us? That should save money!
Tariffs, being Trump’s favorite word, also came up at Davos. Trump threatened an additional 25% tariffs on several European countries if he did not get his way on Greenland. Canada would be in for 100% tariff if they entered a free trade agreement with China. He also admitted that the reason for all the Greenland chaos is that it is very important to own things for him, pyschologically. Are the tariff threats, bullying, the attacks on NATO all because of his psychological needs?
So, in how many ways has Trump embarrassed not only me but the whole country?
He is illiterate on geography, unaware of practical issues of defending the island, oblivious to loss of funding for important information about Greenland, ignorant of existing agreements, uncaring about economic damage, disparaging of our allies, and really only interested for his own psyche and his friends’ enrichment. Not bad for a single conference!
And all that was before the ICE disaster in Minneapolis unfolded.
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This essay will also be published in Substack.
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