Trump wants Greenland because he has no friends

It’s that simple. Trump will never feel secure no matter how much he controls. Post WWII we engaged with like-minded democracies and through treaties pledged to support each other through thick and thin. It has worked.

Vladimir Putin has no friends and a handful of alliances with disreputable types who I would not trust as far as I coud throw them. Trump thinks this is a good model because he never learned that he could trust others and coming from Fred Trump’s household that’s a reasonable thing. Just not so reasonable for running the free world.

So Trump might conquor Greenland as a hedge against China, ditto Panama. But neither will make us any safer than we are today, and neither will make the once and future prez sleep well at night. At most, Greenland and Panama will serve to outline the limits of our shrinking empire. The one Trump gives up without a fight.