Trump's legacy

[SueEllen]

Donald doesn't understand that that Greenland is already defended - in part by the US! He wants the mineral rights.

US companies already have most of the mineral rights but due to the fact Greenland is frozen they haven't bothered extracting them.

Also if you were one of the 55-56K Greenlanders would you want the tulip of the US ruling you - with the current as well as historical treatment of their native American population,- or the tulip you are used to from Denmark?

[SueEllen]

Next week’s news: Trump writes to King Charles, if you don’t give me a knighthood for letting your county off with only 10% tariffs, then don’t expect red-carpet treatment, find your own hotel

Charlie should give him a medal for something before giving him a knighthood.

In fact he should only be given a knighthood when he's no longer president.

[woody1]

US companies already have most of the mineral rights but due to the fact Greenland is frozen they haven't bothered extracting them.

Watched a reality series on Discovery a few years back about a group of miners and geologists who went to Greenland searching for precious metals and gems. They spent several months exploring all over the place but found f'all. The weather is only just about bearable for a few short months in the year and even then it's teeming with insects. Think Alaska on steroids.

[ladymuck]

What made me chuckle was Trump saying Russia would take over Greenland and he didn't want Russia as a neighbour.

It's going to come as something of a shock when he looks at the map and sees how close Alaska is to Russia (from whom the US bought Alaska, back in the day).

Technically, as the first settlers were Inuits, and there is still an Inuit populace, Canada has more of a claim than the US.

[willendure]

Russias arctic fleet is a shadow of what it was 40 years ago - they have no ability to project power into the arctic. China has a large navy but no ability to project power beyond the first island chain. Therefore, neither of them are even remotely close to threatening Greenland.

Greenland has minerals. Just underneath an ice cap which even at current rates of global warming will takes 100s of years to melt. It has no deep water ports. Therefore any mineral extraction operation there will be extremely cost inneficient. You don't just dig a hole and pull out some rare earths. Rare earths are a bi-product of other mining operations for gold, silver, copper etc. You extract lots of copper and get a little bit of rare earths with it. They are not even that rare, China has a monopoly only because it built up the processing capacity (which is highly poluting).

The North Pole is one of the most strategic places in the world, and for missile defence, yeah it makes sense. The USA had > 30 military bases in the arctic during the cold war, and Denmark was very happy to let them. Has even said they will let them again, assist them even.

Owning Greenland makes no sense for the USA. For Denmark and the Inuits though... well they could get a really good deal out of Trump by playing hard to get and setting a high asking price. Say $1 million per Inuit, not bad for one of the worst piece of real estate on the entire planet! Does it even matter who it belongs to? Its so remote and far from any power centre for there to be any meaningful reality there other than the local community.

I do wonder if Trumps real agenda here is just to piss off Europe. USA wants Europe to take care of its own affairs without their help. Possibly this is just a wedge to drive between us.

Trumps legacy is the return of realpolitik in world affairs. The liberal world order established by the USA post WW2 is over because of the structural imbalance that has built up and caused a huge power shift towards China.

Kind of think he ain't playing 3d chess though...

[willendure]

He wants out of his NATO commitments, so he's creating a rift so he can blame everyone else when he pulls out.

Spot on Billy.

[NotAllThere]

Watched a reality series on Discovery a few years back about a group of miners and geologists who went to Greenland searching for precious metals and gems. They spent several months exploring all over the place but found f'all. The weather is only just about bearable for a few short months in the year and even then it's teeming with insects. Think Alaska on steroids.

One of my friends went on a fishing trip with his daughter in Greenland. Cold and miserable. Good fishing though.

My guess is that Trumpy heard reports about ICE and thought they meant Greenland.

[woody1]

I was glad when he lost in 2020 but in hindsight it might have been better if he'd got back in then, rather than having 4 years to fume/stew and plot his vengeance.

The best we can hope for is to survive the chaos of the next 3 years. Well actually that's not true, the best would be if he just dropped dead.

And no, I have no plans to visit the country that inflicted him on the world a second time!

[Fraidycat]

The year is now 2026 not 1946. US will leave Nato to the Europeans because they have got bigger fish to fry in China.

[ladymuck]

I told my pension chap today to sell anything that's investing in US companies, treasury bonds or tracking US indices. Yeah, it's a mere 4% of my pension investment and on its own won't bring about regime change. Makes me feel better though.