President Donald Trump's obsession with annexing Greenland for the U.S. is reaching an unusual level of "pettiness," one political science expert told The New Republic, and it's "beyond anything" else that has happened in recent history.
On Wednesday, Elizabeth Saunders, a political scientist with expertise in international relations, was interviewed for the New Republic's podcast, Daily Blast, to discuss the latest developments in the Trump-Greenland story. In particular, host Greg Sargent pressed her on the president's "deranged text" to the prime minister of Norway, in which he claimed that being passed over for the Nobel Peace Prize was driving his push for Greenland, as he was supposedly no longer motivated only by "peace."
“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America," Trump's message read.
The Norwegian government, despite Trump's insistence, is not involved with choosing Nobel Prize winners. Norway is also not the country that controls the autonomous territory of Greenland; Denmark is.
This message left many observers stunned, with one Danish leader calling it "mad and erratic," and some American lawmakers renewing calls for Trump to be removed from office, either by impeachment or the 25th Amendment. Saunders said that while "strongly worded" messages between leaders are not uncommon, this text from Trump went beyond anything she could think of.
"It’s not that unusual for leaders to say things behind closed doors or even in diplomatic cables that are strongly worded and so forth, even in leader-to-leader [communications]," Saunders explained. "But I think this is the level of pettiness, and the accusation that Norway is somehow responsible for him not getting the Nobel Prize and that that should matter in the matter of Greenland’s sovereignty, is kind of beyond anything I think any of us have seen or even can speak about in history."
Sargent also highlighted a reaction from Dr. Jonathan Reiner, the former cardiologist for Vice President Dick Cheney, who said that the message should raise alarms about Trump's fitness for office.
“This letter, and the fact that the president directed that it be distributed to other European countries, should trigger a bipartisan congressional inquiry into presidential fitness," Reiner said in a post to X.
"I think it’s hard to disentangle the permissive environment of Trump 2.0 from the obvious signs of aging," Saunders said. "Trump’s advisers’ approach is just to let him loose. And so there is a sort of loose-cannon feeling to it now. I think you’re seeing this on so many fronts."