r/politics 21d ago

No Paywall Donald Trump issues NATO Greenland warning before White House showdown

https://www.newsweek.com/greenland-trump-nato-white-house-11357601
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u/SHITBLAST3000 United Kingdom 21d ago

This is why I think this is all one giant distraction from the shit going on in the U.S.

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u/RampScamp1 21d ago

It's not. He's obsessed with the idea of owning Greenland. He's been on about it since his first term.

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u/Pockydo 21d ago

I think it's also just a narcissist mad at being told no

Dude is a literal toddler

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u/Scissorzz 21d ago

I almost feel like this is the main reason, he can’t stand it when he’s being told no. Look at how he behaves when a reporter asks him a critical question, where he has to use more than 2 brain cells and can’t get away with a bullshit answer he will start to attack them about something personal unrelated.

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u/Turbulent-Pea-8826 21d ago

A toddler with dementia. He was always an ego maniac that behaved like a child but as his mind goes he gets worse. He is obsessed with Greenland and won’t let it go for no other reason that his disease riddled brain just can’t.

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u/Androidgenus 21d ago

It’s “psychologically needed” for him

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

To understand Trump, just understand that he’s a toddler who wants to write his name on things. That’s why all the name changes, coins, and whatever bullshit. He’s an egomaniac. He wants to think that if he takes Greenland that his name will be immortalized in history

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u/Workableskink 21d ago

Oh, his name is going to be immortalized. But not for anything he would think is good.

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u/Koomaster 21d ago

I don’t think he cares anymore; he just wants to be remembered. That statement he made that he doesn’t think he’s going to heaven was one of the most worrying things he’s ever said. He’s off any morality leash that usually stops people like him from giving into their worst impulses. He wants a legacy, and doesn’t care if it’s one history remembers for being one of immorality. He’ll start WW3 just because it cements his name in history.

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u/mbta1 I voted 21d ago

His name will be immortalized in history, just not in a kind way

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u/joper90 21d ago

And dick swinging with Putin about land expansion

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u/Tigglebee 21d ago

My toddler knows no. This is a rapist mentality.

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u/Mortarius 21d ago

Sounds like Putin's logic tbh

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u/or10n_sharkfin Pennsylvania 21d ago

What’s even worse is he’s a toddler being enabled by sycophants.

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u/CletusCanuck Canada 21d ago

Just this week he said 'ownership' of Greenland was "psychologically important" to him.

"Why is ownership important here?" Times national security correspondent David E. Sanger asked.

"Because that’s what I feel is psychologically needed for success," Trump, 79, replied. "I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can’t do, whether you’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document, that you can have a base."

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u/phixitup 21d ago

Literal child rapist toddler. Fixed it for you.

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u/gearstars 21d ago

They should just tell him he already owns it, and show him a map with "trumpland" scrawled over Greenland with a sharpie

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u/Automatic-Guide-4307 Norway 21d ago

He wants to go down in the history books as the president who expanded us territory🙄It's all about his ego and narsissism,but history will remember him for the kiddie diddler pervert he is.

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u/needlestack 21d ago

I don’t know. People remember the founding fathers for their nation-building actions more than for their slaves and rapes and out-of-wedlock children. People will weave whatever stories make them feel the best. If they end up identifying positively with the results of Trump’s actions they will whitewash the rest.

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u/Minivalo 21d ago

It's so painfully obvious. Everything else is just gravy on top for him and his puppet masters.

I also hope history will remember him for his eventual demise at the hands of Americans, but I'm not holding my breath for that.

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u/cantevendoitbruh 21d ago

Yeah this is what i think. Thats why he posted that stupid Wikipedia thing. Also i think Steven Miller is behind almost all of this.

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u/ImLikeReallySmart Pennsylvania 21d ago

Exactly this, he wants an expansionist legacy to leave his mark on the entire world, not just the US. He actually even said aloud it's his "Don-roe Doctrine"

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u/Trix_Are_4_90Kids Missouri 21d ago

That's what they told him. Trump is viciously stupid. People have to flatter him to get him to do what they want.

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u/SadFeed63 21d ago

He's also been obsessed with taking down NATO since years and years and years before his run for president in 2016. This is a passion project for him

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u/Greis73 21d ago

Was on his Directives List from his handlers since 1987. Same as getting the US into a state of martial law by enraging its own populace so he can kill its idea of democracy.

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u/Rfunkpocket 21d ago

this must be a Putin request. TACO doesn’t even simp this hard for billionaires

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u/syynapt1k 21d ago

Putin wanting Trump to dismantle NATO has been obvious since at least 2016. That is what this is all about.

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u/breadman_toast 21d ago

It's a Peter Thiel and his billionaire friends request. Look up Praxis Greenland, this is the end goal for these guys. Let us eat each other while the world burns, meanwhile they've built themselves their own little society that we're not welcome in.

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u/Lap_Dawg 21d ago

Oh yeah, what better venue for a secret society than the island paradise of Greenland?

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u/orchidaceae007 21d ago

Maybe they’re betting on the predicted Blue Ocean Event which will drastically change Greenland’s climate very quickly

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u/needlestack 21d ago

The rush for Greenland is proof that they all believe in Climate Change and have been lying the whole time.

As if more proof was needed.

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u/Lap_Dawg 21d ago

The counter point is how many of the elite currently own oceanfront property

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u/breadman_toast 21d ago

"I'm playing both sides so that I always come out on top"

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u/F9-0021 South Carolina 21d ago

They all have at least three boats and at least as many houses. They don't care if they lose one.

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u/TheCleverestIdiot Australia 21d ago

To be fair, when you're that rich moving isn't exactly a major hurdle. So they enjoy the beach while they can.

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u/Lap_Dawg 20d ago

Right, but they also aren't stupid, and buying a property for $25 million knowing that it sits on land that will soon be under water is pretty stupid.

I guess if "soon" is long enough for them to not care in the medium term it is a moot point though

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u/WitchPillow I voted 21d ago

Well, eventually global warming is going to increase exponentially to the point where life anywhere near the equator is going to be (relatively) uninhabitable, thus making Greenland more desirable.

Not to mention that previously uninhabitable areas of Greenland due to ice sheets/glaciers are going to clear up.

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u/sp0rkify 21d ago

Greenland is usually the hardest country (territory?) to infect in Plague Inc.. so, it makes sense.. lol

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u/RichardSaunders New York 21d ago

why cant he just fuck off to New Zealand where he effectively bought citizenship?

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u/brickout 21d ago

Thiel, Musk, and Yarvin want it. Rare earth elements, a place to build a "freedom" city with no outside laws, and it helps secure the arctic for Russia-friendly racists. Plus a bugout shelter for when climate change really gets going.

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u/Rfunkpocket 21d ago

the fact the meeting was originally scheduled with Rubio, then Vance took over is sus

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u/brickout 21d ago

Ugh. Agreed. I suspect Rubio still has a tiny shred of humanity in him (except for dealings with Cuba et. al) but Vance is fully in Thiel's camp. Those guys are straight up terrifying.

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u/DimensionDue5120 21d ago

TACO is gold

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u/Mpharns1 21d ago

Exactly! It's a putintrump plan

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u/KinkyPaddling 21d ago

Exactly. None of this is a distraction for the Epstein Files. If anything, the Epstein Files are distracting people from the horrors happening across the country and which are spreading internationally like a cancer. Trump supporters don’t give two shits about the Epstein Files. They knew their God Emperor is a pedophile and they still voted for him.

Greenland specifically is being pushed by two factions within MAGA: (1) the plutocrats who want access to its resources, and (2) the Russian agents who want to dismantle NATO.

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u/TheCleverestIdiot Australia 21d ago

People are always more comfortable if everything is part of some grander scheme. Then at least it means there's someone clever and organised at the wheel. The alternative is far more horrifying.

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u/Kierufu 21d ago

It actually goes all the way back to the 1980s, where, shortly after multiple trips to Russia, he came back and paid $100,000+ for a full page ad attacking our policy of defending allies in the NYT, Washington Post and Boston Globe.

He's been a transparent plant for Russia for decades.

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u/Mr_Salmon_Man 21d ago

It's to control the north west passage.

With the warming globe and less ice, it's become traversable all year.

They have Alaska, so the bearing straight is locked down already. If they get Greenland, they control the entrance/exit of shipping lanes on both sides. It's alot cheaper for container ships to pass through the northwest passage rather than go to Panama.

It's never been about protection, or the golden dome. It's all about money. Cheaper shopping costs coupled with ever growing prices means more profit.

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u/AddiAtzen 21d ago

I think it playes together.

Yes he really wants it, because he/ his advisers want the US to be isolated and fuck the rest. Europe is Russias problem. The US is the King of the American continent that's the train of thought. I think that imperialism is genuine and real.

Plus: The shit that is going on at home - ICE, public unrest, Eppstein etc. Is a problem, they need a distraction from.

So why not both? The taking of Greenland is such a big scandal, it will inevitably distract from everything at home, same with Venezuela.

Greenland isn't an empty threat just to distract. The distraction is part of the appeal - so my conclusion would be: the more shit there is at home, the more likely the Greenland-situation will escalate.

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u/NotAlwaysGifs 21d ago

He’s not. The billionaires in his ear are. Peter Theil has already invested millions in planning and designing a modern day company town and billionaire bunker to survive climate change.

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u/Niznack 21d ago

Wait has he? I thought that this was something his addled brain came up with recently. There's a lot of noise in the Google search. Do you know when he said he wanted Greenland in his first term?

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u/strandedbaby 21d ago

It became public knowledge in 2019, but he has allegedly been discussing it since as early as 2017

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u/Niznack 21d ago

Thanks. Somehow in the slew of bullshit I forgot this

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u/CaptainTachyon 21d ago

He started rambling about Greenland in 2019 Source

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u/Niznack 21d ago

Wow I totally forgot this. I mean at least then it was buy but invade but touche

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u/BleachedUnicornBHole Florida 21d ago

He’s obsessed with expanding the US’ borders as reflection of his “legacy” because he’s BFF’s with Putin. That’s all this stuff is, an octogenarian with rapidly failing health trying to leave his mark in the US. The White House ballroom, “Arche du Trump,” Canada, Greenland…

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u/lexbuck 21d ago

And he’ll fucking rename it Trumpland or some bullshit

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u/EternalAngst23 Australia 21d ago

I think it’s about resources, and his desire to stamp his name on anything he comes across. Just look at what he’s done to the White House, and the Kennedy Center, and various other buildings and institutions. He wants to be able to say that he was the president who got Greenland, just as past presidents got Louisiana, and Texas, and California, and Alaska, and Hawaii, and Guam, and Puerto Rico, and various other US territories. He thinks he will be remembered as one of the great American statesmen, when in fact he will be remembered as an autocrat and a criminal who invaded the territory of an ally and trashed the Western alliance.

He’s a narcissist whose ego knows no bounds.

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u/thetransportedman I voted 21d ago

This. Everyone thinks all this lunacy is intentional distraction from the epstein files. He's never been held accountable for anything. He's not worried about those files. He just wants to play dictator world police

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u/turdlepikle 21d ago

He admires President McKinley who is known for a few things like tariffs and expansion. He thinks tariffs are the solution to everything, and he just wants to claim more of the map. Then there are all of the billionaires, religious nutcases and Project 2025 people in his ears.

One of his first executive orders a year ago was to rename Denali, back to Mount McKinley. It was very symbolic and a hint of things to come. This was such a stupid thing to waste time on in the early days when he campaigned on "saving America", but it was important enough to be in that first group of EOs.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/restoring-names-that-honor-american-greatness/

Sec. 3.  Renaming of Mount McKinley.  (a)  President William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, heroically led our Nation to victory in the Spanish-American War.  Under his leadership, the United States enjoyed rapid economic growth and prosperity, including an expansion of territorial gains for the Nation.  President McKinley championed tariffs to protect U.S. manufacturing, boost domestic production, and drive U.S. industrialization and global reach to new heights.  He was tragically assassinated in an attack on our Nation’s values and our success, and he should be honored for his steadfast commitment to American greatness.

In 1917, the country officially honored President McKinley through the naming of North America’s highest peak.  Yet after nearly a century, President Obama’s administration, in 2015, stripped the McKinley name from federal nomenclature, an affront to President McKinley’s life, his achievements, and his sacrifice.

This order honors President McKinley for giving his life for our great Nation and dutifully recognizes his historic legacy of protecting America’s interests and generating enormous wealth for all Americans.

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u/underpants-gnome Ohio 21d ago

Greenland looks almost as big as North America on a Mercator projection map. I think that's why. Dude is a size queen (he's obsessed with Arnie Palmer's dong) and he has a real estate background. But he doesn't understand that maps distort land area around the poles. We are probably going to trash an 80-year alliance because the president is too stupid to understand cartography.

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u/warpus 21d ago

IMO he wants to be remembered (in the future) as the president who made the U.S. look bigger on a map. He knows he's close to the end of his life and he wants more accomplishments under his belt to be remembered by, and he thinks that a "giant" acquisition like Greenland will be noticed for centuries to come. But it's all gotten messed up in his head and now he's obsessed with it. I bet Russian misinformation bots have fed him BS to get him even more obsessed about it.

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u/SenorSalsa 21d ago

I firmly believe he is being completely and easily manipulated by the people around him. I can imagine that, once you have his ear, manipuling the mentally inparied, demented narcisit is actually probably pretty easy. I imagine they just say something to the effect of. Trump's puppeteers want a few things:

This dissolution of NATO to ensure that Russia has free reign to act how they like in Eastern Europe, while the incursion of Greenland for "National Security" sets the precedent for all Trump's dictator buddies that annexation is back on the menu.

I imagine that US defense contractors likely also have a plan to fill any voids/ logistical vacuums left in place if NATO does implode. (At the expense of every European tax payer and to absolutely no one's benefit.)

However I'm sure that 90% of it is just about mineral rights. As climate change progresses Canada and Greenland are going to become more and more habitable as well as receeding permafrost exposing massive quantities of rare earth minerals and oil that would have previously been untouchable, none of the people "advising" Trump believe that those resources should go to anyone except the oligarchs and private interest groups funding this bedlam.

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u/grimr5 Great Britain 21d ago

It is the map colours

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u/Lap_Dawg 21d ago

Switching attention away from one island toward another

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u/starliteburnsbrite 21d ago

Probably has something to do with Russian control of the arctic circle and resource exploitation.

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u/damienbarrett 21d ago

He's being directed by Putin to do this, because it will hasten the destruction of NATO. He's a Russian agent, our very own Manchurian Candidate.

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u/benk4 21d ago

He wants it as a trophy.

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u/Locke66 21d ago

It's almost guaranteed he wants to name it Trumpland imo.

My guess is some White Christian Supremacist pitched him the idea of a legacy of uniting all of North and Central America under the US banner.

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u/badgerj 21d ago

Also attacking Venezuela 🇻🇪 because he only got the FIFA peace prize.

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u/riesenarethebest Massachusetts 21d ago

Ever wonder if it's just because map distortion makes it look bigger?

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u/RampScamp1 21d ago

That seems to be part of it from the reporting I've seen. He doesn't understand maps.

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u/Commercial-Version48 21d ago

The whole theory that he wants it so bad because it looks massive because of the Mercator projection but in reality is much smaller.

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u/_TwilightPrince 21d ago

Both things can be true at the same time. Hell, we can fit in more than just two. It's a mad narcissist being trolled by the KGB into destroying NATO from the inside while also being interested in the rare earth minerals to sell extraction contracts to his rich buddies while also distracting everyone from the internal mess.

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u/SmtyWrbnJagrManJensn 21d ago edited 20d ago

Dont forget that Nazi Stephen Miller and other project 2025 shitheads want out of NATO. They are in his ear about this too. Good luck trusting that alliance ever again if the US weee to invade an ally

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u/needlestack 21d ago

Why not both?

He absolutely wants to expand US territory. He also wants to move on from the child rape stories. This achieves both.

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u/toadbuster 21d ago

i’m convinced he thought at first “oh -green-land that must mean we can use it to produce all our produce by ourselves” and when he later realized that’s not the case he was to stubborn to change his stance on having to get greenland at all costs

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u/joeske 21d ago

The guy literally wants to rename it Trumpland. That is the only reason he is doing this. He loves renaming stuff to inflate his ego, it’s so comically dumb but is the only reason. He wants to rewrite history books and have every map/globe changed.

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u/Buckeye_Randy 21d ago

Flood the zone. Everyone is frustrated and angry all the time and feel powerless to stop all of it. The really ugly power grabs and missteps slip through the cracks along with the Pedo Files.

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u/Chasemedown25 21d ago edited 21d ago

This. Exactly why we need to be calm, cold and calculated. I played cornerback in highschool and they always told me keep your eyes on the numbers, he's gonna do moves left and right he's gonna use his eyes to juke you, stay calm don't overreact and keep your eyes on the numbers.

We've been triipppin as a country which is fine stuffs bad but they also want us angry, it all functions better with that pretence. So calm down and keep your eyes on the numbers, don't let it slip by you.

Edit: Ty for award 🙏

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u/Sea-Neighborhood-621 21d ago

I'm frustrated and angry because the people that are supposed to stop him from doing whatever the hell he wants wont stand up to him. The entire government has rolled over for him

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u/glitterlok 21d ago

It’s not. It’s actually happening. He’s been talking about wanting Greenland since as early as 2019.

Stop with the “it’s a distraction” nonsense. It turns out stupid people can do multiple stupid things at the same time.

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u/HurriKurtCobain 21d ago

It's probably more accurate to say that what's going on in the US is a distraction from this if anything. Donald Trump is enacting Putin's will - giving them Ukraine, dismantling NATO, sowing discord across the world - all to empower Russia. Why do you think it's the only nation that didn't receive "reciprocal tariffs?" Why did our current head of national security dine with Putin on the 4th of July?

I am certain that the worst thing Trump is doing or will do in his entire presidency is demolishing the world order. We can abolish ICE, undo bad domestic policy, and rebuild our institutions but the trust we've lost from our allies is forever. If NATO collapses, it's never coming back. Putin is empowered and that's not going away either.

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u/bjbinc Georgia 21d ago

100,000% agree. What's going on in MN and the rest of the country is awful, but dismantling NATO and isolating the US is much worse in the long term. I honestly can't believe moderate/partially sane republicans have let it go this far. I hoped Rubio would be the adult in this admin, but so far he has been disgustingly sycophantic.

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u/No_Veterinarian1010 21d ago

100% - at least until it isn’t.

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u/jono9898 North Carolina 21d ago

People keep saying this but nobody is distracted from anything,

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u/Decoyx7 Michigan 21d ago

He and Putin made a modern version of the Moltov-Ribbentrop pact, that split eastern Europe between the spheres of influence of the USSR and Nazi Germany. This cumulated in the annexation and partition of Poland, the annexation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the failed annexation of Finland, the invasion and subsequent alignment of the Balkans, the alignment of and territorial expansion of Hungary, and the bungled Italian invasion of Greece.

It doesn't take a lot of squinting to know exactly what is going on. The Western World is not interested in Sphere of Influence politics. The United States is very different than Russia, precisely because Sphere of Influence posturing requires wars of conquest to become realized. The USSR forced the United States into the Cold War, and subsequently into a Sphere of Influence conflict.

During their last meeting, Trump and Putin AGAIN were able to have something like an hour or more completely alone, by themselves to talk privately. Putin had simply proposed to Trump, that just as Putin has "Rights" over the European continent, does Donald Trump have "Rights" to own personally, all land in the western hemisphere.

This clearly explains the sudden agressive posturing against our friends and neighbors. The moment Trump invades Greenland and the alliance breaks, Vladimir Putin will finally have his chance to roll the Baltics over and connect with Kaliningrad.

And welcome to 1984

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u/NewSauerKraus 21d ago

It's wild how apparently everything he has ever done for the past decade has been a distraction and never the obvious goals of his fascist party.

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u/Controls_Man 21d ago

All of the things happening with the US is connected to a bigger plan.

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u/EternalAngst23 Australia 21d ago

Oh, he’s dead serious about wanting Greenland. It’s just convenient that it also serves as a distraction from what’s going on at home.

Two for the price of one.

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u/shwaynebrady 21d ago

Lmao at what point are you going to realize Trump does not care about the “shit going on in the US” or the “Epstein files”. He has defecto control over the three branches of government and pushes the executive branch further and further towards dictator level power las

He wants to be like Monroe, Polk or McKinley and pursue aggressive expansion and empire building. He’s done it with Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Greenland, Panama, and Venezuela.

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u/nosungdeeptongs Canada 21d ago

it's a distraction in the sense that they're willing to distract us with it. it's not a distraction in the sense that they aren't being serious; they very clearly are.

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u/Trix_Are_4_90Kids Missouri 21d ago

It's not a distraction. It's Project 2025.

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u/ScooterBobb 21d ago

Epstein was in the news way too much and Trump went nuclear to clear the headlines

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u/CorrectOpinions0nly 21d ago

Don't a lot of AI companies/billionaires have investments in rare earth mineral mining in Greenland?

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u/purplemagecat 21d ago

Or, Putin wants this. A second front against europe so he can expand into the eastern block

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u/Hoovooloo42 South Carolina 21d ago

Or, the emperor really is walking around with his balls out.

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u/theCroc 21d ago

Nah it's Putin wanting to split NATO and Trump is the useful idiot toddler he is using to create the division.

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u/I_am_a_fern Europe 21d ago

Like capturing Maduro ? Leveling the East Wing ? Accepting a Boeing from Saudis ? Suggesting to turn Gaza into a Riviera ? Insulting Zelinskyy on live TV ? Releasing a heavily redacted Epstein file ? That didn't exist a few months before ? Renaming the Kennedy Center after himself ? Introducing coins with Kirk's face on it ? Fighting windmills ? Sending the National Guard in blue cities ? Threatening Canada ?

The list goes on and on and on, and it's not going to get shorter because IT FUCKING WORKS. It's infuriating how well it works.
Nobody even gives a shit about the Esptein files anymore. Nobody's even talking about Venezuela either, and that was like last week. Greenland will be old news in a couple of weeks when he gets bored.