Trump & Greenland: Only Congress Can Decide Territory

You’ve got to hand it to President Trump: He has definitely shifted the terms of public discussion and debate.

My attention was drawn to a report in Wednesday’s New York Times headlined: “Rubio Tells Lawmakers Trump Wants to Buy Greenland.” That would be bracing if there were not already an inane history to this topic — a history that, remarkably, lends the report an undertone of relief rather than astonishment: It’s actually a comedown from commentary by White House officials Karoline Leavitt and Stephen Miller suggesting, respectively, that the president had not taken off the table the use of military force to seize Greenland from our NATO ally, Denmark; and that it was unnecessary to contemplate using military force since our allies are too impotent to challenge a U.S. seizure in our might-makes-right world.

You’ve got to hand it to President Trump: He has definitely shifted the terms of public discussion and debate.

My attention was drawn to a report in Wednesday’s New York Times headlined: “Rubio Tells Lawmakers Trump Wants to Buy Greenland.” That would be bracing if there were not already an inane history to this topic — a history that, remarkably, lends the report an undertone of relief rather than astonishment: It’s actually a comedown from commentary by White House officials Karoline Leavitt and Stephen Miller suggesting, respectively, that the president had not taken off the table the use of military force to seize Greenland from our NATO ally, Denmark; and that it was unnecessary to contemplate using military force since our allies are too impotent to challenge a U.S. seizure in our might-makes-right world.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.