Greenland, or how appeasement doesn't work with Trump
European leaders are discovering, with a mixture of astonishment and terror, that with Donald Trump, the "he wouldn't dare" argument simply doesn't work, and that the policy of concessions to appease him not only fails but actually spurs him on to demand more and more. Trump wants Denmark to give him Greenland and threatens tariffs on anyone who supports Copenhagen. It's reasonable to think we are facing a new kind of American imperialism that even threatens to seize territory from its traditional allies. But it goes even further.
If you truly want to understand what drives Trump, you must carefully read the letter he sent to the Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre: "Dear Jonas: considering that your country decided not to award me the Nobel Peace Prize for having waged more than eight wars, no longer the prevailing peace, but now I can think about what is good and appropriate for the US," the letter states. “Denmark,” the text continues, “cannot protect this land [Greenland] from Russia or China; so why does it have ‘property rights’ as well? There is no written document, only that a boat landed hundreds of years ago, but we also landed in boats,” he adds. In other words, since you haven’t given me the Nobel Peace Prize, now I’m going to take Greenland from the Europeans. It is resentment, then, that drives him, especially against Europeans, for all that they represent as an alternative to his worldview.
If analyzed objectively, everything Trump wants to eliminate is what defines the EU's civilized project: multilateralism, free trade, social justice, and respect for human rights. The US president seeks a world divided into spheres of power, with international trade reduced by protectionist policies, without social safety nets, and where human rights are a relic of the past. Faced with this, Europe—that is, the EU and Great Britain—must begin preparing for a confrontation over Greenland. Not a military one, obviously, but one in other areas, such as the economic sphere. Because it is no longer out of the question that, driven by his frustration, Trump will end up giving the green light to the use of military force.
It is also true that in such a critical situation as the current one, there are glimmers of hope. One of them is the drop in Trump's approval ratings in the polls. And the other is the growing awareness among Europeans of the need to act together and not give in any more to the occupant of the White House. This is at least what the latest moves by European foreign ministries suggest, as they seem to have heeded the advice of the American thinker Francis Fukuyama, who recorded a video urging his European friends "not to back down to Trump, because he interprets it as a sign of weakness." American liberals and Democrats like him have already figured this out. And that's why people are taking to the streets in places like Minneapolis. Because appeasement, with Trump, doesn't work.
