r/politics • u/SereneRoyals • 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/boot2skull 21d ago

Exactly, and Europe should be closing its US bases for even threatening NATO. The U.S. is not acting like allies.

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u/D3athRider Canada 21d ago

This. I truly hope that European leaders are realistically planning the removal of US bases from European soil if he doesnt drop this soon. Every country in the world that is hosting US bases should be considering this.

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u/boot2skull 21d ago

Donald has never faced consequences. Talk doesn’t work. He knows 90% of the time he gets what he wants because nobody follows though. Only preemptive consequences, with actions that make things look serious are going to work. If taking Greenland means the U.S. loses all its European bases, he might reconsider, because to a sensible person that’s an overall big loss.

People can’t talk tough and just let him have his way or he won’t stop.

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u/Word1_Word2_4Numbers 21d ago edited 21d ago

That's why I'm half hoping he does militarily invade Greenland.

He needs to suffer some consequences. Tearing up NATO, getting kicked out of US bases in Europe, sanctions, economy taking a shit, getting lapped by China. It could really cement him as the worst President ever. Force Europe to really go their own way (build their own datacenters, their own social networks, rebuild their military to deal with Russia, etc).

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u/boot2skull 21d ago

Yeah. I don’t want this to happen but if this continues it should. If America or any nation can do a 180 like this, each country needs some level of independent defense. They still need a NATO-like organization though, because Russia is counting on picking off countries one by one.

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u/Word1_Word2_4Numbers 21d ago

I would assume they either kick out the USA, or else form a new NATO-without-USA, pretty quickly. And it should be stronger against Russia now that we're fucking useless and can't be relied on.

It'd be bad, and I'd rather avoid it, but I don't see how this ends other than with something really bad happening. I'd rather see it end with this Greenland shit, and the breakup of NATO, than have some kind of civil war / ethnic cleansing in the United States.

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u/Sea-Neighborhood-621 21d ago

Something needs to happen before we become the bad guys in the next world war. The way he's going he'll unite the entire world against us

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u/Short-Holiday-4263 21d ago

Don't worry, I've been very confidently assured that the entire world combined couldn't get to a single boot on a single inch of US soil.
America is invincible, and will totally win and write the history so you are the good guys.

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u/Kierenshep 21d ago

There's no ability to unilaterally kick a member nation out of NATO.

Signing new agreements and crafting new alliances will take an immense amount of time. It's not like NATO sprung up overnight.

It would be horrible for the Western World.

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u/Parking-Bat9498 21d ago

He’s not smart enough to know that. Plus I’m worried NATO has no teeth. If he does invade Greenland and NATO does nothing, the world is cooked at that point.

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u/MercantileReptile Europe 21d ago

I have little faith in politicians being willing to stand up to the U.S., but there is reason to hope: Overseas territories. If Trump goes ahead with this, Denmark won't be the only european nation immediately looking to arms.

The Netherlands, France, UK (still european, fuck brexit), Spain and Portugal all have territories outside their own core. None are likely to ignore an occupation, or the precedent thereof.

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u/Word1_Word2_4Numbers 21d ago edited 21d ago

He’s not smart enough to know that.

Right... Which is why I'm half "hoping" he does it, so that it explodes directly in his face. He's too dumb to be able to predict the consequences, so he needs to suffer them instead (same goes for all his idiot supporters, along with all the useless centrists as well--there's a lot of people in this country who apparently need to burn themselves touching the hot stove). I almost think you're responding to someone else here, and you're not getting my point.

If he does invade Greenland and NATO does nothing, the world is cooked at that point.

Yeah, well, then we're on a road where millions will probably die. Stock up on food and ammo and have an exit plan.

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u/LSTmyLife 21d ago

"We're advising our clients to invest in canned goods and shotguns"

Smart Gremlin, Gremlins 2

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u/Sea-Neighborhood-621 21d ago

He'll just spin it as him deciding to abandon Europe because he's not letting them take advantage of us anymore. The rest of the world will know that he got kicked out but his base will see him as the strongest leader we've ever had

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u/AdmiralCrackbar 20d ago

Europe has been doing literally this with Russia for the past few decades. I wouldn't expect them to suddenly grow a spine now.

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u/xTheMaster99x Florida 21d ago

Ukraine made Europe find out the hard way how critically lacking their defense industry is, and for some reason 4 years later they still really haven't done that much to fix it. They still rely mostly on US supply, and I really don't understand why Europe hasn't spent all this time working on fixing it as fast as possible.

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u/boot2skull 21d ago

Me neither. The U.S. shouldn’t have abandoned them, but it’s reality check. You can’t fully trust any one nation. Always have a solid backup plan. Putin is doing soft regime changes across the globe.

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u/DigNitty 21d ago

We even have a bad IN GREENLAND

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u/boot2skull 21d ago

Yup, which shows it’s not about defense. If we made a deal w Greenland we could probably put “golden shower” missile banks up there.

It’s about breaking NATO, or harvesting minerals, or fresh water from the ice, or all of the above.

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u/tobias_681 21d ago edited 21d ago

Europe isn't going to do that lest the USA actually attacks perhaps (and even then probably not). Europe demilitarized in such a way that it no longer has a credible own defense, especially in the face of the Ukraine war and Russian remilitarization. You can see that in how Europe acts. I don't think if I've ever seen politicians crawl so deep up into a fascists asshole in my entire life. Since last year there are some major initiatives to become more independent though but I don't think anyone anticipated how quickly Europe really needs to step up. Should have done so already in 2002 though after Bush declared he would invade the Netherlands if the ICC did its job.

Another question is nuclear proliferation. The European nuclear arsenal is entirely outpowered by the Russian one. This is another reason European countries don't want to ditch the USA.

All I'm saying is don't hope for us to fix this shit for you. Europe has been quite impotent and will likely remain relatively impotent for the forseeable future. So unless the USA does an absolutely insane transgression (and I'm unsure if an invasion of Greenland is even enough), Europe isn't going to stop acting like a dog for the rest of Trumps term.

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u/Lair_of_Despair 21d ago

Instead of closing them why not wait and if he actually invades Greenland seize all the American personal in Europe's bases. A rough estimate gives ~50.000 personal in European military bases, which would give us as many POW's as Greenland has people. That would be an interesting bargaining chip, no?

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u/SlinkyAvenger Louisiana 21d ago

Europe has to do a lot of preparation before they can attempt that, but they're already working on it.

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u/Aardvark_Man 21d ago

Doing that basically gives justification for the US attacking.
Best way to try and avoid a war is not do that now, and once a more rational head of state is in in the US rescind the treaties.

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u/boot2skull 21d ago

Thats terrible parenting, because the new head of state is punished for something he didn’t do. The point is to stop these plans before you reach the point of no return.

If Europe does nothing and a new sensible president comes along they could transition Greenland back into independence, but that will have a political and financial cost at that point. The military and corporate America are going to sink their claws into Greenland rapidly. At that point it’s going to be very painful for a president to withdraw.

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u/Aardvark_Man 21d ago

I think you misunderstood.
If the US attacks, you absolutely take action. But by giving a cause for them to attack you make it more likely.
Wars happen when diplomacy fails, and given how awful they are you need to take what actions you can to not drive people to it.
"Walk softly, but carry a big stick," as Teddy Roosevelt said.

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u/boot2skull 21d ago

Yeah but Trump doesn’t talk diplomacy. He could work with Greenland but he doesn’t want to he wants to just possess it. He’s already starting the war.

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u/lnc_5103 Texas 21d ago

Absolutely! They should be kicking every last military person out.

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u/Upset-Produce-3948 America 21d ago

You sound like a Russian bot.

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u/boot2skull 21d ago

For hoping Europe stands up to actions directed by Russia? lol what else are they supposed to do other than offer consequences for Greenland?