President Trump announced a deal has been made over Greenland.

 

President Trump at Davos. Fox News/AP.

President Donald Trump has announced a preliminary deal with NATO and Denmark over Greenland. Fox News. Trump canceled a larger number of tariffs he was going to impose on Europe and said that the deal would respect Denmark's sovereignty over Greenland. He said that the deal accomplished everything the United States wanted, but details still had to be worked out by his foreign policy team, including Marco Rubio. Trump had been threatening to take over Greenland, leading to consternation from Europe, and even minor military deployments, but in the end a deal was made. 

My Comment:

It's amazing, after a decade in politics and almost 40 years after Donald Trump released Art of the Deal, people still don't understand what Donald Trump is about. It was clear that the threats he was issuing to Denmark, NATO and Greenland were a negotiating tactic, one he outlines in his book. Trump even said in the book what you should do is make extreme demands so that when you grant concessions it seems like a win. 

Indeed, the hand wringing and whining about Trump wanting Greenland was always kind of silly. The people that demonize Trump used it to paint him as a madman, which was actually playing right into his hands. What really gets me is that Europe didn't seem to understand it either. There is this idea that Donald Trump isn't predictable, but given how this exact scenario has played out half a dozen times since he started his 2nd term, let alone his 1st term, it's baffling that even governments seem to not understand this is how he works. 

Most news sources have been extremely scant on the details including the Fox News report. From what I understand though, the United States will be granted sovereignty over some territory in order to build military bases. This would be similar to UK's military sovereign territory in Cyprus. Greenland will also be integrated into the "Golden Dome" missile defense system, which is a major reason we wanted the territory in the first place. 

There is also the formalization of previous treaties with Denmark in regards to defense and an agreement over Greenland's vast mineral and oil resources. These resources will likely be critical, if extremely hard to develop. What the agreement would accomplish is making sure that if these resources are extracted, they will go to the United States, not Russia or China. 

There are going to be more than a few people that will whine about this and will be mad about the drama. Those folks are wrong, Greenland was a major issue for the United States and given the current weakness of Europe and the general uselessness of NATO, it was time to excerpt our power to get the Island defended. Now, even if Denmark collapses into economic or social chaos, which is a likely outcome for most of Europe, we will be able to defend Greenland from any threats from China or Russia.