Yanking Our Chain

“This chain of events, which some Danish officials and security experts proposed to us in recent months, may have seemed faintly ridiculous as of last Friday. By the weekend—after the toppling of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Trump’s ensuing insistence that the United States now “runs” Venezuela—it seemed far less so. For months, Danes have anxiously imagined an audacious move by the Trump administration to annex Greenland, whether by force, coercion, or an attempt to buy off the local population of about 56,000 people with the promise of cutting them in on future mining deals. Now those fears are spiking.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump Seizing Greenland Could Set Off a Chain Reaction. (The chain reaction has already been set in motion. Our allies fear us and our enemies like Russia and China feel emboldened.)

+ Danish prime minister says a US takeover of Greenland would mark the end of NATO. (That probably tempts Trump even more…)

+ NYT: How the ‘Donroe Doctrine’ Reinforces Xi’s Vision of Power in Asia. “A globe carved into spheres of influence — with the United States dominating the Western Hemisphere and China asserting primacy across the Asia-Pacific — and where might makes right, regardless of shared rules, could benefit Beijing in a number of ways.”

+ On Fox News, the Nobel Prize-winning “Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado—offered to give her medal to Trump after he announced he would not back her to run the country she’s fought to reclaim.” This is how the world thinks the American government operates. And they’re right.

+ We know a lot more about the world’s reaction to America’s power grab than we do about the reasoning and goals of those who orchestrated it. From yesterday: FIFA Fo Fum.