Donald Trump is going to annex Greenland

And the European-American military alliance will be exposed as a farce

We don’t know exactly what happens next with Donald Trump’s illegal, nakedly colonial onslaught against Venezuela. We know that it involves US domination of its oil industry, and right now, it appears to mean threatening the interim Venezuelan president with further attack - and even death.

In other words: ‘do as we say, or we will shoot’.

There’s lots more to say on Venezuela, but it is worth noting that Donald Trump has a list of other victims. And one of them is Greenland, an autonomous territory which is part of Denmark.

In a new interview with The Atlantic, the US magazine edited by a former Israeli prison guard, he is quoted as follows:

“We do need Greenland, absolutely,” he said, describing the island—a part of Denmark, a NATO ally—as “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships.”

Trump first raised buying Denmark in his first presidential term. But that term was essentially a pact with the traditional Republican elite, where he stuck to their agenda - like tax cuts and deregulation - while occasionally sounding off.

Not this term: the US is now run by a full-fat far-right regime determined to both overthrow democracy at home and fully dominate the Western Hemisphere. Greenland has rare earth minerals, and has a strategically important position. And Trump is going to annex it.

Denmark has become justifiably alarmed by a post yesterday from Katie Miller. She’s a former administration official turned podcaster - and, crucially, married to Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. And, well, see it for yourself.

Subtle!

Last August, Denmark summoned the top US diplomat in protest at covert attempts to infiltrate Denmark to promote its union with the US.

And a couple of weeks ago, Trump appointed a special envoy to Greenland. The territory’s own prime minister declared in response that it must “decide our own future” and its “territorial integrity must be respected”.

Well, that is not going to happen. It is a dead cert that Trump is going to annex Greenland. He has made clear his intentions over and over again, and anyone who still believes his second-term incarnation is defined by empty bluster has long missed their appointment with brutal reality.

So what happens then, exactly? Both Denmark and the US are members of NATO - yes, that’s right, they are military allies. Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty establishes that “an armed attack against one NATO member shall be considered an attack against them all.”

The Danish prime minister has just issued a statement:

I must say this very clearly to the United States:

It makes absolutely no sense to speak of any necessity for the United States to take over Greenland. The United States has no legal basis to annex one of the three countries of the Kingdom of Denmark.

The Kingdom of Denmark — and thus Greenland — is a member of NATO and is therefore covered by the Alliance’s collective security guarantee. We already have a defence agreement between the Kingdom of Denmark and the United States that grants the U.S. broad access to Greenland. In addition, the Kingdom has made significant investments in security in the Arctic.

I therefore strongly urge the United States to cease its threats against a historically close ally, and against another country and another people who have stated very clearly that they are not for sale.

So what exactly is Europe going to do when it happens? Because it is going to happen. We should consider Europe’s feeble response to the outrageously illegal assault against Venezuela. Trump certainly has, as he prepares to seize over two million square metres of European territory.

Expect an utterly craven response from Europe. But the truth will be impossible to deny, which is that NATO - and the European-American military alliance - will have formally perished, even if that will take a while to be properly understood.

And how’s everyone faring up in Canada?