Trump threatens tariffs on countries that won’t support Greenland move. That’s called negotiating.
I don’t usually read professors. Most of them have been in classrooms so long they’ve forgotten how the real world works. But this morning I came across a military historian named Phillips O’Brien who wrote something about Greenland that made me sit up. He said Trump is “deadly serious” about taking it, and that Greenland is “objectively an area of US strategic interest.” Finally. Someone with credentials saying what regular folks have known for months.
Now, this professor seems worried about it. That’s fine. Professors worry. It’s what they do. But buried in all his hand-wringing is the basic truth: Greenland matters, Trump knows it matters, and he’s willing to use leverage to get it done. That’s not scary. That’s how deals work.
Tariffs Are Just Another Word for Leverage
Yesterday Trump said he might put tariffs on countries that don’t support the Greenland move. The professor calls this a “threat.” I call it negotiating. You want access to American markets? Help us out. You want American military protection? Maybe pitch in when we need something. That’s not complicated. That’s the kind of deal-making that built this country.
Europe has been freeloading on American security for decades. We protect them from Russia, we keep the shipping lanes open, we station troops all over the continent. And what do we get? Lectures about “international law” and “territorial sovereignty.” Well, maybe it’s time they contributed something besides complaints.
The professor even points out that the same people who explained away Russia going after Ukraine—strategic interests, great powers do what great powers do—should logically support this. He’s right. But he seems to think that’s a gotcha. I think it’s just obvious. Big countries have interests. They pursue them. That’s how the world works. Always has been.
Sometimes You Have to Be Serious
What I like about this whole situation is that everyone can tell Trump means it. The professor uses the word “deadly serious” like it’s a bad thing. But when’s the last time we had a president who was serious about anything? Who actually followed through? The Europeans are scrambling because they’re not used to an American leader who doesn’t back down after one news cycle.
Denmark’s sending troops to Greenland now. Good. They should have been defending it properly all along. If it takes American pressure to get them to take their own territory seriously, maybe that tells you something about how reliable our “allies” really are.
The professor worries about what happens next. I don’t. I think you state what you want, you apply pressure, and you see who blinks. That’s not reckless. That’s common sense. And I’m full of it.
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