The Week | An End to the Greenland Crisis?

• So that’s what it takes to get left-wingers to go to church.

• President Donald Trump spent the past week demanding that Europe turn over Greenland to the United States. The U.S. has accepted Danish sovereignty over Greenland for more than a century, but that couldn’t deter Trump from threatening to dramatically raise tariffs on eight European countries, all NATO allies, until he got his way. Tensions were further inflamed by Trump’s obsession with receiving a Nobel Peace Prize. In a message to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Trump blamed Støre’s government for refusing to grant him the award and claimed he “no longer feels the obligation to think purely of Peace” in his pursuit of Greenland. When the World Economic Forum’s annual Davos summit arrived, both sides seemed girded for battle. But during a rambling speech at the event, Trump proclaimed that he would not use military force. Later, he announced that he had reached a “framework” of a deal with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte that would grant America full access to Greenland’s mineral deposits. In exchange, Trump called off his proposed tariffs on European imports. These developments are promising, but this crisis was unnecessary. We are fortunate that Trump’s recklessness did not cause greater damage to the transatlantic alliance.

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• So that’s what it takes to get left-wingers to go to church.

• President Donald Trump spent the past week demanding that Europe turn over Greenland to the United States. The U.S. has accepted Danish sovereignty over Greenland for more than a century, but that couldn’t deter Trump from threatening to dramatically raise tariffs on eight European countries, all NATO allies, until he got his way. Tensions were further inflamed by Trump’s obsession with receiving a Nobel Peace Prize. In a message to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Trump blamed Støre’s government for refusing to grant him the award and claimed he “no longer feels the obligation to think purely of Peace” in his pursuit of Greenland. When the World Economic Forum’s annual Davos summit arrived, both sides seemed girded for battle. But during a rambling speech at the event, Trump proclaimed that he would not use military force. Later, he announced that he had reached a “framework” of a deal with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte that would grant America full access to Greenland’s mineral deposits. In exchange, Trump called off his proposed tariffs on European imports. These developments are promising, but this crisis was unnecessary. We are fortunate that Trump’s recklessness did not cause greater damage to the transatlantic alliance.