The Mango Mussolini has refused to rule out economic pressure or military action to take over Greenland. Greenland is currently one of the two autonomous territories of the Kingdom of Denmark; the other being the Faroe Islands1. Inhabitants of both of those territories are citizens of Denmark and as Denmark is part of the European Union, they are therefore European Union citizens2.
Denmark is also a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and Article 5 of the NATO Treaty states that: “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area. Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.”3
So, under Article 5, if the Mango Mussolini ordered an attack on Greenland, the US and all other NATO nations would be bound to defend Greenland. This would, of course, see the collapse of NATO, which is precisely what Vladimir Putin wishes. With his apparent puppet as president of the United States, this would give Putin a free hand to invade other nations, not just Ukraine, to create another Russian empire as he seems to want to do4.
As part of the idiocy surrounding this Greenland brain fart, one of Trump’s idiot sons, Don Jr, visited the Greenland capital, Nuuk, and went to the Hotel Hans Egede for lunch with a group of people wearing MAGA hats where he put the Mango Mussolini on speakerphone. The latter told them: “We’re going to treat you well.” But Jørgen Bay-Kastrup, the hotel’s chief executive, said many of the ‘guests’ were in fact not Trump supporters but people Trump Jr’s team had met on the street and who only found out later who Trump Jr was. Describing many of the group as homeless people, he said: “[Trump Jr] had just met them in the street and invited them for lunch, or his staff did.”5 One online wag said that Trump Jr, who is reputed to be rather fond of cocaine, was disappointed that all the white stuff in Greenland was only snow.
Another of the Trump’s threats is to ‘take back’ the Panama Canal spouting the lie that Chinese soldiers were ‘operating’ the Panama Canal. He directly challenged the Panamanian government and stated that the US is paying too much in fees to use the canal, and added that if his demands are not met he would try to have the canal returned to the US (who finished the building of it in the early 20th century). He even suggested that military force might be used to acquire the canal.6. What Panama wants, given its awareness of the value of this geopolitical asset, is to balance U.S. and Chinese interests with its own desire to run the canal without undue influence from either Washington or Beijing.7
In addition to the idiocy above, Trump has suggested that the US could annex Canada and has suggested using ‘economic force’ to do so, such that it would be a peaceful transition. It would likely end up being a bloodbath as Canadians look upon the nation adjacent to them as a basket case.8
The economic force would consist of, at least in part, tariffs, but the Canadians have suggested that they would react by imposing their own sanctions, but target them at Republican states or states that voted for Trump9. One measure which has been suggested would be to impose a 100% tariff on Tesla vehicles.
It’s very unlikely Trump will get Canada, the canal or Greenland. It has been suggested that his strategy might be aimed at getting better deals for the US — perhaps a discount for American vessels transiting the Panama Canal, greater American access to rare earth minerals in Greenland and sea routes made navigable by melting polar ice, and perhaps a new trade deal with Canada to advantage US exporters. Trump would of course portray any of these massive wins, even if they end up being rather cosmetic like his first-term US-Mexico-Canada pact.10
One last stupidity is renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. One wag suggested that Trump wanted to name it after himself, but he couldn’t because the name ‘Bay of Pigs’ was already taken. Google has actually fallen into line, stating that they would change the name on their maps if and when it is officially changed11. That is an added reason to use Safari as a browser.
Some commentators seem to believe that these above idiocies are purely to distract his detractors from his plans for the US which apparently have been compiled in a manifesto named Project 2025. This really is an horrific manifesto in that it wants to entrench christofascism in the US. It proposes the following:
- Replacing public servants with Trump loyalists
- Slashing regulation
- Closing the Department of Education
- Removing the abortion drug mifepristone from the market
- Data collection on abortion
- Maintaining a biblically based, definition of marriage and family
- Increased funding for a border wall between the US and Mexico
- Eliminating some categories of visa, especially those for crime and human trafficking victims
- Beginning the largest deportation programme in US history
- Slashing funding for research and investment in renewable energy
- Abandonment of carbon dioxide emission goals
- Stopping the “war on oil and natural gas”
- Slashing corporate taxes
- Abolishing the Federal Reserve
- Banning pornography
- Eliminate from all laws and federal regulations, the terms “sexual orientation”, “gender equality”, “abortion” and “reproductive rights
- End diversity, equity and inclusion programs in schools and government departments
- Giving parents control of schools
While Trump attempted to distance himself from this manifesto during the election campaign, there are many clear areas of agreement between the manifesto and the Republican platform, and many personnel are common to both12.
As an attempt to distract his detractors, his Canada, Greenland, Panama Canal, and Gulf of Mexico idiocies may partially work, at least for a while. However, an added reason for these ludicrous propositions is to distract his gullible MAGAt followers from the fact that he will do nothing to address their concerns, of which he made much in the election campaign. These include such things as bringing down the cost of living. This has been conspicuously absent from his first two weeks in office. He has even admitted that it is now not his top priority. In fact, he continues to ramble on about immigration being his top priority.13 I presume he hopes that his MAGAt suckers will now direct opprobrium at Canada, Denmark and Panama rather than Trump’s oligarchs who are the proximal and distal cause of most of their problems.
Initially, Trump said he would bring down food prices “from Day One”. Egg prices, for example, have been driven higher as a result of a deadly bird flu that has constricted supply; meat prices have been on the rise because of ongoing drought; coffee prices are expected to jump because of severe weather in South America.14
If you want to work out whether any of Trump’s promises in the election campaign will be honoured, ask yourself if such a promise will adversely affect the extremely wealthy or their corporations. If you believe the answer to be ‘yes’, then that promise will be abandoned.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_Realm
- https://www.nato.int/cps/ie/natohq/topics_110496.htm
- https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/10/europe/russia-putin-empire-restoration-endgame-intl-cmd/index.html
- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/16/homeless-people-given-free-lunch-to-attend-donald-trump-jr-event-in-greenland
- https://thediplomat.com/2025/01/trump-china-and-the-truth-about-the-panama-canal/
- https://theconversation.com/trumps-canal-canard-obscures-a-truth-panama-just-wants-to-run-its-shipping-passage-without-interference-from-china-or-the-us-246828
- https://theconversation.com/attempting-to-annex-canada-would-spell-disaster-for-the-u-s-at-home-and-abroad-246937
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/09/trudeau-trump-threatened-to-annex-canada-to-distract-from-tariffs-impact
- https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/08/politics/trump-greenland-canada-panama-analysis/index.html
- https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2025/1/30/gulf-of-mexico-or-gulf-of-america-google-maps-and-contentious-geography
- https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c977njnvq2do
- https://www.npr.org/2025/02/01/nx-s1-5282353/trump-economy-prices-inflation
- https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/28/economy/trump-inflation-price-promises/index.html
He’s well on the way to corruption of the very basis of USA democracy with the Project 25 plan to infest govt at every level with sycophants prepared to disregard decency and the rule of law, and to punish anyone who opposes him. Those who can be legally sacked have been, others have been “invited” to resign with a smalll bonus. He’s removed DOJ prosecutors who worked to bring him and violent perpetrators of the Capitol Hill insurgency to account and is now trying to find the names of every FBI agent involved in the investigation. And yet Republicans and Americans in general apparently see no problem in this. Even the highest court in the land – the tainted (corrupt in some cases) SCOTUS – declined to get involved in Trump’s incitement of the Capitol insurrection, essentially saying ‘it’s not up to us to decide whether he has immunity for his actions as POTUS’.
Musk’s DOGE goons, who are outside govt, are carrying out Trump/Project 25 directives with no legal backing for many of their actions – including demanding access to databases, some with highly sensitive data. Only in dictatorships does this sort of thing happen: https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/doge-affiliated-goons-accused-of-locking-career-civil-servants-out-of-key-databases/ar-AA1yfPkw?
In a fairly obvious sham email sent by a “Greg Jorssen”/Trump’s team all NOAA staff were exhorted to RESIGN, with the highly accurate catchline – ‘Aren’t you tired of working for a complete c***?’. “Greg” missed a key word in ‘his’ email – DANGEROUS needed to be the penultimate word. I immediately thought of our Tones when I read that: https://nswcourts.com.au/articles/court-rules-its-ok-to-refer-to-tony-abbott-as-a-ct/
In an IF ONLY moment – a sadly untrue X comment (seems a tautology) which said “ICE just announced it is pausing the hotline where people can call to report undocumented immigrants because 90% of the calls are from people reporting Elon Musk,” has gone viral. Ironically Musk was once exactly that, and has also claimed to be an ‘alien’ (arguably true, he has numerous abnormal traits, but I suspect ‘alien’ is a his way of explaining his ‘see-you-next-tuesday’ tendencies.
This opinion piece tracks Republican extremist views from decades ago. Makes VERY interesting reading: https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/inside-the-gop-s-60-year-conspiracy-to-kill-our-democracy-opinion/ar-AA1yenAU?
USA voter complacency and ignorance is a couple (no more) of steps ahead of ours but it shows exactly where we could be headed if we don’t pay attention or allow the likes of Newscorpse to continue to pervert reality. The old adage about the price of freedom/democracy and eternal vigilance has never been more stark. Grace Tame’s Fuck Murdoch t-shirt was a reminder. Brave and very admirable woman that.
Jon,
Yep. I don’t see any way out of this for the US except a civil war of sorts. TKhe onlky thing we have going for us is compulsory voting and preferential voting The US and UK don’t and are doomed to live with their two party system, whereas we can elect independents. The next election will be very instructive. If the Liberals form government (I don’t think they will), Dutton will attempt to destroy what remains of Australian democracy.
I appreciate this blog shouldn’t end up being a running commentary on the histrionics, hyperbole, hypocrisy and general fwitism of TrumpInc2 (we’ll go bonkers and possibly suffer depression) but there’s occasionally a silver lining to be found. For those who haven’t seen them, two beauties emerged from Trump’s Canada-Mexico sideshow. Neither required more than a few words, one just an image.
The first involved him extracting a (non)”concession” from an obviously smarter, well-briefed Mexican President.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/ooof-trump-mocked-for-falling-for-trick-in-mexico-tariff-deal/ar-AA1yl6I2
The second, a rant about NAFTA trade deals, drew this response on the X cesspit.
“Donald Trump just criticized the existing trade deal, and asked, “Who the hell came up with some of these trade deals?” I’ll just leave this here,” wrote author and activist Majid M. Padellan, better known as BrooklynDad on X. The screen capture he posted showed Trump was the one who signed the “new NAFTA” trade deal during his first term.
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/01/world/01prexy01/01prexy01-videoSixteenByNineJumbo1600.jpg
Unfortunately not everything is so comedic, as Trump’s DEI rants, and his administration’s anti-science and anti-(govt)expert actions show. He would be totally oblivious to the latter two even though he rubber stamped them between games of golf and plates of fried chicken, pizza and Big Macs.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/it-s-clear-why-trump-blames-dei-for-everything/ar-AA1ynhsQ
Beautiful piece of writing that, especially as she excoriates a compliant, arse-kissing media.
The next lnk ought to scare the hell out of anyone with even a modicum of intelligence and balance. You want anti-science? We’ll give you anti-science, anti-society and subintelligence all wrapped up in a simple package with a CLEAR warning to scientists and researchers.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/so-stupid-prof-shares-government-threat-to-halt-scientific-studies-mentioning-women/ar-AA1yoMZG
The irony of Trump’s wildly inaccurate DEI rant about air safety and the bumbling reponse his media team gave to questions about flying safety in the USA is palpable. This is supposedly an advanced country capable of dealing with problems in an intelligent (if not adult) way. We ought to be surprised but I doubt anyone is. Just appalling.
https://www.rawstory.com/faa-advisory-panels/
But blaming Trump for everything would be a travesty, because we know he is neither smart nor diligent enough to develop policies and actions himself (he rarely reads meeting briefings or even the documents he signs). Behind him are at least three culpable groups of sycophantic enablers: (1) Congress Republican lawmakers; (2) unelected swill like the authors of Project 25, Musk, and sundry other obsequiants* ; and (3) last but far from least , mainstream media, particularly but not exclusively the extreme right wing medi , including of course Murdoch dross.
Are we seeing acts (like the replacement of largely agnostic public servants with dangerous partisan flunkies) which could bring about the disintegration of American democracy if not curbed? No doubt. Will that happen? Who knows but if there was an American Democracy Doomsday Clock ** (there needs to be) I’d have it at 5 Minutes to Midnight already.
The US of A is in uncharted waters with a group of unprincipled, ideological sociopaths currently in ascendency, but alliances might quickly fracture and the rule of law might help curtail some of the excesses. I think we’ll have a good idea in 2 years time when voters have to make some judgements in mid-terms and judges will have made legal rulings on TrumpInc2 actions to purge anyone with professional standards, anyone who would blow the whistle, and anyone who would either agitate for or demand public accountability.
Speaking very optimistically, USA presidential voters gave Trump just a 1.5% margin over a late-to-the-party Black, FEMALE candidate, AND 90M (no, it’s not a typo) of them – who probably don’t have a clue what’s going on under their noses anyway – didn’t bother to register a vote either way. Many are about to get some wake-up calls even they can’t ignore.
* ‘obsequiant’ is not a word but it ought to be
** there is an urgent need for an American Democracy Doomsday Clock. It would for example have been moved closer to midnight after SCOTUS washed its hands on presidential immunity and Trump eligibility to run, despite clear direction from the Founding Fathers in the Constitution about insurrection and impeachment.
Jon,
I wouldn’;t have believed something like this could happen in the US. However, their democracy has always been a half-arsed version.
Leaving aside the scary conclusions the author is inviting Christians to believe (essentially that “Jesus” will eventually save us, so there’s no need to act ourselves to kerb their excesses and utter disregard for fellow humans), he makes some VERY good observations about morbidly (I prefer toxically) wealthy “Tech” Broligarchs. Well worth a read: https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/02/tech-broligarchs-jesus-elon-musk-russell-moore/
Related article on the toxically wealthy in America and how Reagan in particular enabled the current version of SoCEOpaths here: thttps://hartmannreport.com/p/the-morbidly-rich-a-new-name-for-df7
Jon,
I saw a recent post on Substack where it was suggested that the country “needs to RID* itself of Musk (R.I.D. = Rapid Involuntary Defenstration)’ This is otherwise known as the Putin solution. It is starting to all look a bit 1789.