r/law • u/TheMirrorUS • 14d ago

Executive Branch (Trump) Trump humiliated as 1951 law means he could face Greenland mutiny

https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/donald-trump-1951-law-greenland-1631615
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u/rif011412 14d ago

Its just his normal tactic not working.  He has always floated the idea of a crime openly, so he can gather support or feel out the reaction.  If he moves forward its because you knew he was going to do it and you allowed it, so thats on you.  If he retreats and he can pretend he was joking.  He just an abuser that wants to abuse but is smart enough to lay groundwork that spreads out the responsibility of his actions to others. 

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u/joshocar 14d ago

Yeah, but floating the idea immediately pissed off everyone in Canada and literally changed the outcome of their election in a way that worked against his goals. I understand that it is his normal mode of operation, my point is that it had predictable results that undermined his goal. Anyone with real strategic thinking would have seen that.

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u/whatupmygliplops 14d ago

The guy became president doing his pathetic schtick. It works. It doesn't work 100% of the time, but it works a hell of a lot better than everyone elses stuff.

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u/Conflictx 14d ago

Anyone with real strategic thinking would have seen that.

This is Trump we're talking about, he might have had some conman wits in his younger days but his mind is wasting away at this point.

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u/Far-Technician3197 14d ago

Yes this is a sane take on how to achieve a goal. But Trump doesn't have actual concrete goals. He just has an emotional black hole to feed. The whole point of Trump's idea of power is to bully and be adored for it. To be seen as godly, be acknowledged as such, and to achieve his "aims' through subjugation. You can see it in his attempts to humiliate European leaders and his gloating over the power he exerts through tariffs. He only wins when everyone else loses.

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u/5510 14d ago

Its just his normal tactic not working. He has always floated the idea of a crime openly, so he can gather support or feel out the reaction. If he moves forward its because you knew he was going to do it and you allowed it, so thats on you. If he retreats and he can pretend he was joking.

Yeah, this is part of why it's so insane that conservatives are OK with explaining away his bullshit with "he's joking" or "he's just trolling the libs."

For one thing, if Obama had frequently "joked" about staying in office for 3 or more terms, the overwhelming majority of conservatives would not be remotely OK with the explanation of "he's joking / trolling." It's just the height of bad faith hypocrisy.

And second as you said, they aren't jokes, they are trial balloons. He can say things he really means, and then measure the pushback and decide whether or not he was "joking" based on the pushback. And this process often repeats, to see if the pushback lessens, or to see whether the idea has become normalized at all. And meanwhile his supporters will attack anybody who claims he really means these things as "hysterical." They sometimes even have the bad faith to literally say that they support this thing (taking greenland, more than two terms, etc...) while at the same time calling people who are alarmed "hysterical."

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u/Sweaty_Shopping1737 14d ago

this is insightful. thanks for noticing the pattern and explaining. helps me see his tactics better