What did Donald Trump say over the cellphone to Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, on Wednesday? I don’t know which exact phrases he used, however I witnessed their affect. I arrived in Copenhagen the day after the decision—the topic, in fact, was the way forward for Greenland, which Denmark owns and which Trump needs—and found that appointments I had with Danish politicians have been abruptly at risk of being canceled. Amid Frederiksen’s emergency assembly with enterprise leaders, her overseas minister’s emergency assembly with occasion leaders, and a further emergency assembly of the foreign-affairs committee in Parliament, all the things, unexpectedly, was in full flux.
The end result: Mid-morning, I discovered myself standing on the Knippel Bridge between the Danish overseas ministry and the Danish Parliament, holding a cellphone, ready to be advised which course to stroll. Denmark in January shouldn’t be heat; I went to the Parliament and waited there. The assembly was canceled anyway. After that, no one needed to say something on the document in any respect. Thus have People who voted for Trump due to the putatively excessive worth of eggs now precipitated a political disaster in Scandinavia.
In non-public discussions, the adjective that was most incessantly used to explain the Trump cellphone name was tough. The verb most incessantly used was threaten. The response most incessantly expressed was confusion. Trump made it clear to Frederiksen that he’s severe about Greenland: He sees it, apparently, as a real-estate deal. However Greenland shouldn’t be a beachfront property. The world’s largest island is an autonomous territory of Denmark, inhabited by people who find themselves Danish residents, vote in Danish elections, and have representatives within the Danish Parliament. Denmark additionally has politics, and a Danish prime minister can not promote Greenland any greater than an American president can promote Florida.
On the similar time, Denmark can also be a rustic whose world firms—amongst them Lego, the transport large Maersk, and Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic—do billions of {dollars} value of commerce with america, and have main American investments too. They thought these have been constructive facets of the Danish-American relationship. Denmark and america are additionally founding members of NATO, and Danish leaders could be forgiven for believing that this issues in Washington too. As an alternative, these hyperlinks grow to be a vulnerability. On Thursday afternoon Frederiksen emerged and, flanked by her overseas minister and her protection minister, made an announcement. “It has been prompt from the American aspect,” she stated, “that sadly a scenario could come up the place we work much less collectively than we do immediately within the financial space.”
Nonetheless, essentially the most tough side of the disaster shouldn’t be the necessity to put together for an unspecified financial menace from a detailed ally, however the want to deal with a sudden sense of just about Kafkaesque absurdity. In fact, Trump’s calls for are illogical. Something that the U.S. theoretically may wish to do in Greenland is already attainable, proper now. Denmark has by no means stopped the U.S. navy from constructing bases, trying to find minerals, or stationing troops in Greenland, or from patrolling sea lanes close by. Up to now, the Danes have even let People defy Danish coverage in Greenland. Over lunch, one former Danish diplomat advised me a Chilly Struggle story, which unfolded not lengthy after Denmark had formally declared itself to be a nuclear-free nation. In 1957, the U.S. ambassador nonetheless approached Denmark’s then–prime minister, H. C. Hansen, with a request. America was considering storing some nuclear weapons at an American base in Greenland. Would Denmark wish to be notified?
Hansen responded with a cryptic word, which he characterised, in accordance with diplomatic information, as “casual, private, extremely secret and restricted to at least one copy every on the Danish and American aspect.” Within the word, which was not shared with the Danish Parliament or the Danish press, and certainly was not made public in any respect till the Nineties, Hansen stated that because the U.S. ambassador had not talked about particular plans or made a concrete request, “I don’t assume your remarks give rise to any remark from my aspect.” In different phrases, In case you don’t inform us that you’re holding nuclear weapons in Greenland, then we received’t must object.
The Danes have been loyal U.S. allies then, and stay so now. Throughout the Chilly Struggle, they have been central to NATO’s planning. After the Soviet Union dissolved, they reformed their navy, creating expeditionary forces particularly meant to be helpful to their American allies. After 9/11, when the mutual-defense provision of the NATO treaty was activated for the primary time—on behalf of the U.S.—Denmark despatched troops to Afghanistan, the place 43 Danish troopers died. As a proportion of their inhabitants, then about 5 million, it is a increased mortality charge than the U.S. suffered. The Danes additionally despatched troops to Iraq, and joined NATO groups within the Balkans. They thought they have been a part of the online of relationships which have made American energy and affect over the previous half century so distinctive. As a result of U.S. alliances have been primarily based on shared values, not merely transactional pursuits, the extent of cooperation was completely different. Denmark helped the U.S., when requested, or volunteered with out being requested. “So what did we do improper?” one Danish official requested me.
Clearly, they did nothing improper—however that’s a part of the disaster too. Trump himself can not articulate, both at press conferences or, apparently, over the phone, why precisely he must personal Greenland, or how Denmark may give American firms and troopers extra entry to Greenland than they have already got. Loads of others will attempt to rationalize his statements anyway. The Economist has declared the existence of a “Trump doctrine,” and 1,000,000 articles have solemnly debated Greenland’s strategic significance. However in Copenhagen (and never solely in Copenhagen) individuals suspect a much more irrational clarification: Trump simply needs the U.S. to look bigger on a map.
This intuition—to disregard present borders, legal guidelines, and treaties; to deal with different nations as synthetic; to interrupt up commerce hyperlinks and destroy friendships, all as a result of the Chief needs to look highly effective—is one which Trump shares with imperialists of the previous. The Russian overseas minister, Sergei Lavrov, has additionally crowed over the alleged similarity between the U.S. want for Greenland and the Russian want for territory in Ukraine. Lavrov prompt a referendum is likely to be held in Greenland, evaluating that chance to the pretend referenda, held underneath duress, that Russia staged in Crimea and jap Ukraine.
In fact, Trump may overlook about Greenland. But in addition, he may not. No one is aware of. He operates on whims, typically choosing up concepts from the final particular person he met, typically returning to obsessions he had apparently deserted: windmills, sharks, Hannibal Lecter, and now Greenland. To Danes and just about anybody else who makes plans, indicators treaties, or creates long-term methods utilizing rational arguments, this fashion of constructing coverage feels arbitrary, pointless, even surreal. However it’s also now everlasting, and there’s no going again.
