Search results for "greenland"

Trump was the big loser of his own Greenland deal: conservative

On Monday, after President Donald Trump announced over the weekend that the U.S. had reached a security deal with Greenland, the editor of a leading conservative magazine warned that the “minor concessions” made by the icy island nation were not worth the diplomatic “damage” they cost. This is according to Luke Nicastro, Senior Editor at the American Conservative, who asserts that the “fractures” Trump created with U.S. allies in Europe will be the agreement’s true legacy.

“The Great Greenland Crisis has ended, and Donald Trump has declared victory,” writes Nicastro. “The barren, icy prize is finally ours. Or is it? Despite the usual bluster, bravado, and social media posts showing Greenland colored in with the Stars and Stripes, Trump’s avowed aim of annexation was not accomplished.” As Nicastro notes, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen emphasized that the deal “recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom [of Denmark] and the Greenlandic people’s right to self-determination.” Nicastro also points out that the deal also doesn’t appear to give the U.S. new economic privileges, which had been another of Trump’s purported goals. Instead, “the deal amounts to a kind of tinkering with the status quo.”

For the past 75 years, the U.S. military presence in Greenland has been governed by the Greenland Defense Agreement, a pact that grants the U.S. military basing and access rights across the territory for an indefinite period of time. And as Nicastro explains, “Most of the benefits the White House has highlighted since Friday — the access to all of Greenland, the lack of U.S. payments, even what the president arrestingly called the pact’s ‘Infinite Life’ — were in fact already provided for by the 1951 agreement.” The only noteworthy changes, says Nicastro, are provisions that will prevent non-NATO nations from basing forces on the island and put guardrails around adversaries’ investment on it. But the deal’s biggest impact, Nicastro argues, is in how Trump’s strategy for reaching it has changed Europe’s perception f the U.S.

“For a year and a half, the Trump administration has employed cajolery, bluster and bullying to obtain an outcome Europe has always held to be flatly unacceptable,” writes Nicastro. “Trump has sought to buy Greenland; he has tried to use tariffs to dislodge it from Denmark; he has suggested the United States may take the island by force. And behind the half-baked security rationales, the true motive has always been clear: to close America’s biggest real estate deal since the Mexican cession, at Europe’s expense. The effect has been to unnerve Europe, and to force its leaders to question their most deeply held assumptions about American policy and power. More than anything else in the last few years, it has persuaded the Europeans that the United States has changed. That the old guarantor of security, which could be depended upon to commit its blood and treasure to defending the other side of the Atlantic — and even defer to its wards on the planning and conduct of that defense — was no more.”

In other words, Trump’s Greenland efforts have pushed allies to question whether American security commitments are “dependable or even desirable.” According to Nicastro, “The damage will endure. The fractures created by an American president threatening economic and even military devastation in order to seize European territory cannot be entirely papered over. Even if the push was initially attributable to Trump’s personal proclivities, the fact that the entire U.S. policy apparatus (including the Pentagon) was willing to sustain such an adversarial campaign against a treaty ally will resonate in Old World capitals for years to come.”

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web

A dark new twist emerges in Trump’s Greenland plot

President Donald Trump has coveted Greenland since his first term — and according to a new report, he is considering using animal cruelty in order to achieve his goals.

"One American businessman has spotted a potential commercial opening [with Greenland]: sealskins," reported The Wall Street Journal's Sune Engel Rasmussen on Monday. "Investor Larry Swets said he last month delivered a 36-page proposal to the White House, through Landry, calling on the president to lift the U.S. ban on seal products as a way to improve relations with Greenlanders, through what he calls sealskin diplomacy."

Rasmussen continued, "Greenlanders and other Inuit peoples have hunted seals for their meat and skin for centuries, but international bans have collapsed sealskin markets. Swets’s proposal, which The Wall Street Journal has seen, seeks to generate income for some of Greenland’s remote communities and to serve as a 'confidence-building measure.'"

Rasmussen added that Swets says the genesis of his sealskin idea occurred after Greenlanders kept bringing up the ban during a business conference in Nuuk.

“Restoring access to the U.S. market would support Greenlandic hunters and communities, while also sending a powerful signal that America respects Greenlanders’ culture, livelihoods and right to make these choices for themselves,” Swets told Rasmussen.

Rasmussen added, "Greenland has repeatedly asked the EU to lift its ban on seal products, in effect since 2009, saying it harms indigenous people in the Arctic."

Describing its opposition to seal hunting, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) describes the torturous methods used to slaughter the pinnipeds.

"Sealers use a variety of weapons, including clubs, 'hakapiks' (heavy wooden clubs topped by a barbed metal hammer head), and rifles," PETA wrote. "Sealers often hook baby seals in the eye, cheek, or mouth to avoid damaging their fur, then drag them across the ice to skin them."

PETA also cited a University of Bristol study from 2007 which found that Newfoundland sealers engaged in “widespread disregard for the requirements of Canada’s marine mammal regulations” including not checking whether an animal was still alive before beginning to skin it. Many of them showed “some response to stimuli after being hooked and dragged,” with a majority not dying after being struck with the first bullet.

Speaking with this journalist for Salon in 2020, PETA co-founder and president Ingrid Newkirk explained why their organization advocates for treating animals with compassion.

"Of course we are one animal among many, and all the animals experience all the emotions," Newkirk said. "They are great emotional beings. They’re not robots or tables or chairs."

In the same Wall Street Journal article, Rasmussen observed that Greenland's economy has benefited from Trump's pressure by using it to convince the European Union to increase its investments. More broadly, the European Union's and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)'s countries have stood by Greenland in the face of Trump's threats to annex the island, which is owned by Denmark.

“We are ready to defend every inch of NATO, including our own territory,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told the press at a July NATO summit. “One of the reasons why we built NATO many, many years ago is if anything happens to one of us then everybody should stand up for each other.”

Similarly, Icelandic premier Kristrún Frostadóttir told reporters that “the lines in the sand are clear: Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland."

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web

Trump’s Greenland threats spark arctic power grab as Russia looms

The European Union announced plans to strengthen its presence in the Arctic as rising temperatures, geopolitical tensions and competition for energy resources and critical minerals reshape the region, the LA Times reports. The move comes amid President Donald Trump’s threats to take control of Greenland, a self-governing territory of Denmark, and growing unease in Iceland after Trump posted a map depicting both islands in the colors of the American flag.

As the Arctic warms much faster than the rest of the planet, new challenges are emerging, including the opening of new shipping routes, increased Chinese trade through the region, and a Russian military buildup that is heightening security concerns. “When we see that sovereignty, territorial integrity and the rules that have underpinned stability in the region can no longer be taken for granted, we have to act and change our strategic posture,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

As a result, the EU wants to help set up a cable center which would assist in undersea communication efforts in the North Atlantic and Arctic. Russian submarines are suspected of preparing to sabotage critical underwater infrastructure in the region. The EU plans to use the funding to deploy cameras, sensors, and satellites to monitor the region and detect potential threats.

At the same time, the European Commission plans to support the development of a “sovereign, secure and resilient submarine cable” that would directly connect Greenland to the EU, per a new strategy document. The cable monitoring system would be part of a larger security hub.

In September, the United States and Denmark reached a security agreement concerning Greenland in an effort to ease tensions sparked by President Donald Trump’s threats to seize the territory. Trump announced the agreement on Truth Social, claiming Denmark would grant the U.S. “permanent control over security, and all other needs” in Greenland, including the establishment of a “large military presence” on the Arctic island.

Danish and Greenlandic leaders also voiced support for strengthening security in the region, while emphasizing the importance of respecting Denmark’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the Greenlandic people’s right to self-determination. The agreement was formalized by U.S. President Donald Trump, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, and Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, which some believe is a pivotal moment in negotiations over Arctic security and Greenland’s strategic future.

Trump has repeatedly dismissed the science behind global warming, despite the Arctic’s rapidly changing temperatures. He has called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world,” arguing that predictions by the United Nations and other organizations have been inaccurate. He has also criticized climate initiatives as a “green scam,” warning that countries embracing them risk economic failure, PBS reports.

From Your Site Articles

How a bogus map exposes 'one reason for Trump's obsession with Greenland'

On Monday, September 7, U.S. President Donald Trump published a fictional "map" on his Truth Social platform that depicted Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean as part of the "United States of America." The "map" inspired an angry outcry from Denmark and Iceland. Meanwhile, a different map debate raged in the United Nations World Assembly, and only one country voted against a UN resolution: the United States.

At issue in the "Correct the Map" resolution debate in the UN, according to Bloomberg News, is the "Mercator projection" — which, Bloomberg notes, "makes Africa and other parts of the Global South appear smaller than they are, while Europe and other northern regions appear larger." The Equal Earth projection, approved in the UN vote, shows Africa in its true size relative to other parts of the world.

Bloomberg News opinion columnist Andreas Kluth, known for his heavy focus on national security and geopolitics, examines the "Correct the Map" debate in his September 11 column — explaining why the U.S. voted against the resolution and arguing that it says a lot about the Trump administration's world view.

"The African diplomats who drafted a recent resolution by the United Nations to 'Correct the Map' of the world made a tactical error when they oversold their bit of common sense with flamboyant claims to 'cognitive justice and memorial reparation,'" Kluth argues in his column. "That kind of language, as they should have known, triggers Donald Trump and his MAGA followers. In the American president's worldview, the wording and the resolution provided yet more proof of wokeness to be expunged at the lefty, globalist and risible UN. And so, the world had to behold another embarrassing spectacle this month: As 164 countries voted to pass the map resolution at the UN General Assembly, only one nation voted against: the United States."

Kluth continues, "It fell to Yaryna Ferencevych, an American diplomat, to read out her government's rationale. 'While this initiative is presented as an anodyne effort to update cartographic proportions,' she said, 'it cannot be separated from the much larger and more radical ideological project it belongs to.' Picking on that unfortunate turn of phrase about cognitive justice, Ferencevych called such resolutions 'barnacles on our work here, and the reason this institution is losing its credibility.' Then, she called on all other countries to reject the text. None did."

Kluth notes that the UN resolution "does not ban any type of map" but rather, "recommends that schools, universities, charities and other institutions consider replacing one of the traditional map types, called the Mercator projection, with a newer one, the Equal Earth projection."

Kluth says of the Mercator map, "Greenland is especially exaggerated: It appears to be 14 times larger than all of Africa, when in fact, it is smaller than Algeria. That seems to be one reason for Trump's obsession with Greenland and his threats to seize it from Denmark, which have elicited a mixture of horror and ridicule among American allies."

"The Mercator distortion may also help explain why Trump, like other European and American statesmen for centuries, shows little interest in Africa, except when using it as a prop for his political memes," Kluth writes. "Many Africans, and others, assume he disdains their continent."

Kluth points out that Trump, on Truth Social, "painted the Stars and Stripes on a map showing countries from Cuba and Mexico to Canada, Greenland and Iceland."

"Reykjavik, far from amused, summoned the U.S. ambassador," Kluth writes. "On another map, Trump labeled the Strait of Hormuz as a 'New U.S. Territory.' All this implies more than mere confusion or ignorance. It suggests — let's use Yaryna Ferencevyc's phrase — a much larger and more radical ideological project: Nothing intellectual, mind you — just a brutish sense that maps had better show the world the way Trump likes to imagine it … It's not that leaders who wield coercive power use maps to shape their understanding of the world. It's that they start using their worldview to shape the maps."

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web

Europe unites behind Greenland — 'stands firm' against Trump annexation push

In Europe, opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed annexation of Greenland is so widespread that even right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is expressing her opposition. And on Monday, CNBC reports, "European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Europe stands firmly with Greenland as Trump renews his push for U.S. control of the territory."

CNBC's Sam Meredith reports that von der Leyen "announced a fresh funding boost for Greenland, seeking to shore up Arctic ties with the self-governing Danish territory amid U.S. President Donald Trump's annexation drive."

"Speaking alongside Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen," Meredith explains, "the EU chief said the 200-million-euro ($232.3 million) funding package reflects 'a clear choice' by Greenland to strengthen ties with the 27-nation bloc. The funds, which is to be invested this year and in 2027, is designed to bolster ties between the EU and the Arctic, with Von der Leyen describing Greenland as 'a strategic ally and a trusted friend.'"

Nielsen didn't mince words on Monday, saying, "The European Union continues to be, not only an important partner for Greenland, but also, a loyal and trusted friend … Through these challenging times, your support to us is unfailing. You have stood by us and continue to stand by us. We feel it and are deeply grateful. Thank you."

Meredith notes that the Greenland funding package "comes shortly after Icelanders voted to reject restarting EU membership negotiations and as Trump renews his push to acquire Greenland on national security grounds."

When Frederiksen was asked how Trump might react to the funding package, she responded, "We have been under pressure, and it has been very clear. And we are very thankful for the great support that we have received from our European partners — but, by the way, also globally."

The Danish prime minister noted that Denmark would like to work with the U.S. on defense and national security matters, adding, "But we, of course, would also like to work even closer together with our European allies, and that is exactly what we are doing in the Arctic region now."

Meredith reports, "The EU's Von der Leyen said Greenland 'stood firm and stands firm under enormous pressure. Europe is firmly united with you too. This is the basic message,' she added. Trump has long advocated for control of Greenland, a vast, sparsely populated and largely frozen island, but the U.S. president's fixation on the territory became a major trans-Atlantic issue at the start of the year."

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web

Conservative National Review tears up Trump for tanking US 'reputation'

President Donald Trump got a major pushback from the United States' North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies when he threatened Greenland with annexation. In a biting editorial, the conservative National Review argues that Trump's Greenland push was a "diplomatic" debacle — from hurting the United States' "reputation" to undermining key U.S. alliances.

The Review, in its editorial, emphasizes that while Greenland is important to the U.S., Trump handled things badly at a considerable "cost."

"To be clear," the conservative Review says, "Trump was right about one big thing: that Greenland merited much more attention than it had been getting. The Arctic may not have warmed up by as much and as quickly as Al Gore and others claimed it would, but it has done so by enough to render it much more accessible than before. As a result, it is becoming a zone of geopolitical competition for its resources and, more simply, because of location, location, location. For obvious geographical reasons, that increases the already-considerable importance of Greenland to this country."

The Review editorial continues, "The island is a potential back door through U.S. defenses and a key North Atlantic vantage point. Moreover, in an era of supply-chain anxiety, it has potentially valuable mineral resources, including rare earths."

But Trump, the Review laments, made things "painful" in ways they didn't have to be.

"Asking politely to upgrade the existing agreement might well have delivered just that — and done so without creating all the geopolitical self-harm," the Review explains. "Unfortunately, Trump went about defending the U.S. strategic interest in a different way, and that was the wrong way. The core of the problem has been that, despite his own nationalist instincts, the president is oblivious when it comes to the national sensitivities of others. Originally, he had imagined that Greenland could simply be bought: essentially, it would be 'a large real estate deal.' This was not, unsurprisingly, how the Danes and Greenlanders saw it. The president's adding the threat of stick (tariffs and hints of worse) to the promise of carrot caused a major rift within NATO and did damage to our reputation as a reliable ally."

According to the Review, "stressing the fact that Danish and Greenlandic sovereignty will be left intact" is in the United States' best interests.

"If and when an agreement is concluded," the Review writers argue, "the best way to maximize its benefits to the U.S. will be to repair the diplomatic damage that this episode has caused by rebuilding a deeper relationship with Denmark and Greenland."

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web

Trump’s quest to ‘conquer’ Greenland closer to reality — thanks to Dr. Phil

President Donald Trump has long craved Greenland, a large island in the North Atlantic controlled by Denmark. He has played a game of chicken by threatening to conquer the island and even vowed at a July NATO summit in Ankara to take Greenland for the United States. He has repeatedly posted a meme of his face acquisitively looming over a Greenlandic village with the slogan “Hello Greenland!”

Now Greenland Energy, a company created by Trump supporter Larry Swets of Texas last year in the midst of Trump’s imperialist rhetoric toward the island, has started moving drilling equipment to East Greenland’s Arctic basin. They claim they will mine $1 trillion in crude oil beneath the Jameson Land region. Both Denmark and Greenland are protesting. And, as one prominent TV news anchor pointed out, America may have in effect begun to invade Greenland.

“The minister in charge of mineral resources in the Greenland government did a local interview in Greenland in which he said he was absolutely sure this American oil company would never break the law and try to start this drilling project without permission,” MS NOW’s Rachel Maddow explained. “Should that happen, he said, Greenland has the means to stop their actions. He said, ‘This is a society governed by the rule of law, so I have some broad-shouldered men in black uniforms in the first instance who can help me deal with some illegal activities if I ask for them’ — by which he means, I think, the Greenlandic police. Then he said, ‘Ultimately, I'm sure that the Arctic Command will also contribute’ — by which he means the Danish military would also, he believes, intervene to stop this American oil company from trying to drill for oil in Greenland without any permission to do so.”

Maddow added, “So you put all this together: this Trump-aligned oil company based in Texas saying, ‘We're going to drill for oil in Greenland.’ Greenland saying, ‘Oh, no, you're not.’ The company going ahead and dropping off their drilling equipment anyway. Local residents saying, ‘We'll fight tooth and nail.’ The local government saying, ‘We'll use the police, we'll use the Danish military.’ You put it all together, and it kind of seems like we're invading Greenland. I mean, this company has somehow hornswoggled itself into a partnership with Dr. Phil to make what sure looks like propaganda TV shows about this ‘heroic and exciting’ oil-drilling project — which the government of Greenland says is illegal, and which they don't have permission to carry out.”

Ultimately she asked, “Honestly — is this how we invade Greenland? With Dr. Phil doing a ride-along, like he did with ICE [which Greenland Energy says they are going to do]? All because a Trump donor billionaire says he needs to drill this oil, and who cares what this little country says?”

If America invades Greenland, the European Union could activate its Anti-Coercion Instrument, a series of boycotts and trade restrictions that would effectively devastate America’s economy in retaliation for violating the sovereignty of European nations.

"The EU’s single market counts roughly 450 million consumers," wrote the German Marshall Fund's Antonia Wunnerlich and Georgina Wright in February. "As a result, these tools can have significant extraterritorial impact, even targeting foreign businesses without European subsidiaries. US and Chinese services firms are particularly exposed because their home countries run sizeable services surpluses with the EU."

Additionally, Greenland’s ice sheet is melting as a result of man-made climate change, which is destabilizing the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. If the situation worsens, it could lead to rising sea levels, widespread floods, severe storms and other extreme weather events.

“That rate of Greenland melt is approaching or exceeding rates of melt during natural warming periods over the past 12,000 years is not surprising,” Michael Mann, at the time a professor of atmospheric science at Penn State University, told this journalist for Salon in 2020. “It’s what I would expect given the evidence we have already.” He also said that one of his studies found “evidence of the freshening of the sub-polar North Atlantic that we would expect as Greenland continues to melt. That freshening is reducing the stratification of the ocean and likely slowing down the ‘conveyor belt’ ocean circulation (the real-world equivalent of the ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ scenario) showing how these potentially threshold-like climate responses are potentially linked.”

Mann added, “As I am fond of saying, uncertainty is not our friend. It’s cutting against us, not in our favor, as we see and learn more.”

- YouTube youtu.be


From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web

'Freaked out' Europeans are moving gold out of the US over Trump: expert

President Donald Trump has made repeated overtures to annex Greenland, despite the overwhelming opposition both within that Danish territory and throughout the rest of the European Union (EU). Now one economist is reporting that the EU may be causing long-term damage to the American economy by moving its gold out of this country — and as a direct result of the United States' actions toward Greenland.

"They've done this because they're worried about what Donald Trump might do to use this against them," economist Catherine Rampell told The Bulwark's Tim Miller on Wednesday. "Now, I don't think he's, like, actually likely to tunnel underground a la Die Hard with a Vengeance and, like, literally steal the gold in dump trucks. But you don't know."

She added, "Like, he did talk about how he wanted to show up at Fort Knox and knock on the door to make sure the gold was still there in case somebody else had stolen it. He literally said that, I think, multiple times. So maybe he would do that. The more likely outcome is that he would basically say we're going to treat the EU, our friends in the European Union, the same way that we're treating Russia. And we're going to say they no longer have access to this."

Rampell continued, "We've frozen Russia's foreign exchange reserves, for example. They might well do the same thing. And by the way, Germany is considering this as well, taking the role back. And Germany had gold here partly because of Cold War reasons. Like it wasn't fleeing the Nazis. It was like making sure that the Soviets couldn't get their mitts on it. In any event, what they're worried about is like, look, there's the whole Liberace stuff within the White House."

The economist concluded, "Maybe we'll have a shortage. I don't think it's actually that. It's like they're freaked out about the invasion of Greenland or the threatened invasion of Greenland. That was a much bigger deal in Europe than American media coverage let on. Like they were totally freaked out about that. They're like, well, if he's threatening to invade a NATO ally, why wouldn't he just expropriate our assets? He talks all the time about how he wants to take the oil or in the case of Venezuela has taken the oil and not just oil, of course."

Miller then pointed out, "Gold? They said they took the gold in Venezuela." Rampell confirmed that this is indeed the case.

Speaking with AlterNet earlier in September, Dr. Richard D. Wolff — professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst – broke down exactly why Europe, Canada and other nations threatened by the United States are acting like this.

"I am not surprised that our government is surprised," Wolff wrote. "Our government is busy strong-arming people around the world in every way that it can, militarily, economically, politically, and discovering time after time to their amazement, if you take them seriously, that the folks are going to resist. And that's what's going to happen."

Europe has already vowed to defend Greenland from American aggression.

“We are ready to defend every inch of NATO, including our own territory,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters at a NATO summit over the summer. “One of the reasons why we built NATO many, many years ago is if anything happens to one of us then everybody should stand up for each other.”

During that same summit, Icelandic premier Kristrún Frostadóttir declared that “the lines in the sand are clear: Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland."

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web

Experts sound the alarm on 'deranged' Trump for doctored US-Canada-Greenland map

President Donald Trump posted an AI photo of himself in the Oval Office speaking to European leaders with a map of North and part of South America with the American flag covering not only the U.S. but Canada, Greenland and Venezuela.

The photo was likely taken during the leaders' visit to the White House in Aug. 2025, but the map on the stand beside the desk wasn't the one in the photo. According to an Instagram photo posted on the White House's page on Aug. 19, 2025, the map primarily features Eastern Ukrainian provinces and Crimea. The White House uploaded the original photo to its Flickr page, which was then added to the Wikimedia Commons.

Trump replaced the map with one of his "manifest destiny" maps, featuring the American flag imposed over Canada, Greenland and Venezuela. Each country has been part of Trump's ongoing efforts to have the U.S. take over countries.

Political experts and reporters noted that it appears Trump is growing bored with Iran again and seeking out Canada, Greenland and Venezuela to entertain him.

Former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum noted, "On this map, Mark Carney would be the front-runner for the 2028 Democratic nomination and very likely next president of the United States."

"Just in case Canada didn't already loathe Trump enough," said lawyer Scott Greenfield.

Researcher and psychologist Dr. Sam Youssef called the post "deranged" for covering Canada in American flags.

"There it is. Trump's boredom with his Iran war had already led back to attacking NATO and proposals to annex Greenland. Now he's remembered Canada, too," wrote Kyle Orton, who writes about terrorism and national security.

Canadian news editor Trevor Robb joked about the boycotts in Canada of U.S. goods. Including the Trump takeover map, Robb implied that Americans appear clueless as to why the boycotts happen: "Why won't Canada buy our booze??"

MAGA fans and Trump loyalists were convinced it was 100 percent real and laughed at what they perceived to be an international version of "owning" world leaders.

"President Trump posted this absolute gem: Him in the Oval Office surrounded by European leaders with a map of GREENLAND, CANADA and VENEZUELA being claimed as USA territory. Cue the meltdowns," said Eric Daugherty, the chief content officer at Right Line News, assuming the photo was real.

The account for Polymarket Intel that posts "breaking news & geopolitics," also assumed the map was real.

The Daily Wire posted it with a laughing-crying emoji and a skeleton skull emoji.

Russia Today also posted it, though it made it clear that the photo was "his doctored Oval Office photo."

"Wild post just now from Trump — appears to show August 18, 2025 WH meeting with Euro leaders The map shows Canada AND Venezuela colored in [with] American flag, more than 3 months before the Maduro raid," wrote White House correspondent Christian Datoc with the conservative Washington Examiner. He later noted he thought the map may have shown Cuba in red and blue as well.

"Trump has once again posted a picture of a meeting of NATO leaders in the Oval Office where the map on the easel was changed from Ukraine to the US. Canada, and Greenland covered with the American flag. Why now? Maybe we'll find out with Thursday's speech," said an anti-Trump protester, including the original photo.

Another anti-Trump person noted, "I think that's called the Moron Doctrine."
From Your Site Articles

Allies rip Trump as renewed Greenland obsession 'threatens to derail' NATO

There was an air of optimism at the beginning of the latest NATO summit, but according to Politico, allied leaders have "soured" after President Donald Trump used the occasion to revive his fixation with acquiring Greenland.

A minor curiosity during his first term, Trump's desire to annex Greenland as a U.S. territory exploded into a full-blown obsession during his second term, claiming that the acquisition is necessary for vague "national security" reasons and, at one point, refusing to rule out the use of military force to seize the island. The issue peaked early this year, with European allies staunchly refusing to support that idea, and warning that military action against Greenland, a sovereign territory of member nation Denmark, could cause NATO to implode for good.

During his visit to the ongoing NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Trump reiterated his desire to annex Greenland, despite previous reports that an understanding had been reached to bring about an end to the issue.

"Greenland … should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark," Trump remarked as the summit kicked off, later adding, "I’m not happy with NATO because of what they did with Greenland."

Initially, visiting leaders expressed optimism about the summit, with Polish President Karol Nawrocki saying, "I’m sure that we will solve the problems around the many international issues," and NATO chief Mark Rutte stressing, "When it comes to Denmark and Greenland itself, we have a good process in place."

The U.S. president's comments appeared to blow up those good feelings, however, with Politico noting that leaders are now "sending a clear signal for Trump to back off."

“We are ready to defend every inch of NATO, including our own territory,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told the press upon her arrival at the summit. “One of the reasons why we built NATO many, many years ago is if anything happens to one of us then everybody should stand up for each other.”

“That type of statement, that type of claim, Norway distances itself from,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said. “We support Denmark, and we support stability in the Nordics.”

“The lines in the sand are clear: Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland,” Icelandic premier Kristrún Frostadóttir told reporters.

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web

Trump revives push for US control of Greenland during NATO Summit

U.S. President Donald Trump, earlier this year, appeared to back down from his push for Greenland to become part of the United States. But after arriving in Ankara, Turkey on Tuesday, July 7, Trump appeared determined to reopen that old wound by reiterating his ideas for Greenland.

On X, Financial Times' Amy Mackinnon reported, "Two hours since he touched down in Ankara for the Nato summit and Trump has reiterated that he believes Greenland 'should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark.' He went on to say that the US could remove 'all of our soldiers out of Europe,' claiming that the continent is 'a very different place than it was 20 years ago.'"

Trump's desire for Greenland to become part of the United States is a sore spot for other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) — especially Denmark.

After Trump, earlier this year, called for the U.S. to annex the Arctic island of Greenland — a colony of Denmark — other NATO countries made it clear that they were vehemently opposed to the idea. Mette Frederiksen emphasized that Greenland and Europe would decide the island's future, not Trump.

In January, Trump wouldn't rule out the possibility of the U.S. military taking Greenland by force, saying that the U.S. would acquire Greenland either the easy way or "the hard way" and that the annexation would happen "whether they like it or not." And Danish broadcaster DR reported that Denmark was quietly making preparations to protect Greenland militarily.

DR, in March, reported, "With the Greenland crisis, Europe realized once and for all that we need to be able to take care of our own security, says a top French official who has played a crucial role in the intense months and critical days of the Greenland crisis."

NATO officials warned that if the U.S. did try to take Greenland by force, it would mean the end of the 77-year-old alliance.

Trump seemed to back down from his threats against Greenland, but he continued to bring up the subject at times.

The 2026 NATO Summit in Ankara comes at a time when other NATO countries are not only troubled by Trump's threats against Greenland, but also, by the way he has handled the United States' war against Iran.

After going to war against Iran in late February and carrying out airstrikes against the country, Trump berated other NATO countries for not doing more to help him with the military operation.

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
@2026 - AlterNet Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. - "Poynter" fonts provided by fontsempire.com.