Hand it over or else
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think tariffs are supposed to be used as aids to extortion.
Trump said Saturday that he would impose a new 10% tariff on Denmark and seven other European countries until “a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.”
The other countries affected would be Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland.
Trump said the duties would increase to 25% if a deal is not reached by June 1.
That seems like not so much a tariff as like a bunch of guys with baseball bats and guns holding up a 7-11.
“We will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed,” said Sweden’s prime minister Ulf Kristersson in a statement. “Only Denmark and Greenland decide on issues concerning Denmark and Greenland.”
Blackmailed or bullied or beaten up.
For others who may be wondering:
Source: UK Department for Business and Trade
So much for the lavish welcome laid on byKing Charles and Keir Starmer when Trump visited England just four months ago.
This is a nightmare. How much farther into madness must Trump (and America) plunge before somebody calls for the invocation of the 25th Ammendment? I wonder if Putin has the Epstein files, and this is what he’s been holding over Trump all of this time? Putin is the biggest beneficiary if Trump immolates NATO from within. It says nothing good about the United States (or our species) that the fate of billions of people hinges on the psychopathology of one man and his handlers, both American and foreign.
I remember from history classes that during hard times in absolutist monarchies, it was common, for those petitioning for the redress of grievances, to blame harmful conditions and bad policies on a rotten apple or two among the king’s counsellors, rather than the king himself, as complaining about the former was, sometimes, somewhat less dangerous than the latter. I think there’s more than enough rotten to go ’round, but who’s really driving this bus of lunacy?
I really don’t understand what’s going on. I know that I’m probably hopelessly naive about all of this. I can’t truly believe that this is all clumsy, blind, blundering, that there’s nobody guiding and controlling this, even if that guidance and control is malevolent and foreign. It actually makes a perverse kind of sense, moreso than if this is the result of pure stupidity and toxic narcissism. How does anyone in Trump’s inner circle benefit from encouaging this kind of brinksmanship and extortion of America’s allies? Are some of them in Putin’s pocket as well? How can none of them see that this plays into the hands of both Russia and China? I know that Trump has surrounded himself with talentless sychophants who know fuck all about anything, but Jesus fucking Christ Almighty, doesn’t anyone know how to tell him “No”? Trump is so easily goaded, manipulated, and fickle, it’s not beyond the admittedly limited capabilities of those around him. Can’t they see that they’re going to go down with him if he crashes everything? Are there no adults in the room? If there actually are individuals or “forces” in his cabinet reining him in, they’re doing a piss-poor job of it.
I know that Vance is probably waiting until he can serve two full terms himself before he pulls the plug on Trump. Vance can only do that if he serves less than two years as Trump’s replacement, so he might sit tight and wait for another year and a bit before finally organizing an internal coup because Trump has “gone too far.” But at this rate, with the combination of internal and external chaos, there might not be much more left for Vance to be president of.