"Something Is Rotten In The State of Denmark"

The Method in Trump's Madness

Trump has, for the last decade, insisted that NATO members pay more. Trump has been very consistent on this point. Russia invading Ukraine has given Trump’s argument some teeth. But most NATO countries have not raised defense spending very much. Denmark has increased defense spending from 1.2% of GDP in 2016 to 1.65% in 2023. It’s now around six billion dollars. The US spends close to a trillion dollars annually on defense. The US consistently budgets 3.6% of our GDP on defense.

Greenland is basically undefended apart from the implied US defense obligations under NATO treaties. Like everyone else, I was taken aback by Trump’s ‘real estate’ play on Greenland as a strategic asset the United States needed to control. I had never thought about it. Evidently various US administrations have been thinking about it for almost two-hundred years. Proposals for the United States to purchase Greenland - Wikipedia. The United States has been internally discussing and even on occasion secretly negotiating with Denmark about buying Greenland ever since Bill Seward bought us Alaska. The US preemptively occupied Greenland following the German occupation of Denmark in April of 1940, more than eighteen months before the United States entered the war. In 1948 Denmark gave up trying to persuade the US to leave Greenland. The formation of NATO led to a 1951 treaty where the US was given significant responsibility for Greenland’s defense.

This morning, I wake up and read that Denmark is increasing their defense budget with an immediate two-billion-dollar expenditure to enhance Greenland’s security. A thirty percent increase in Denmark’s defense spending that wouldn’t have happened if Trump hadn’t started ‘crazy-talking’ about buying Greenland. And it turns out his crazy-talk was just State and Defense Department shoptalk, not really crazy at all. It’s all good.

For my part, I have sworn off calling Trump crazy, or a kook. He is a political genius who rides the Zeitgeist of our times like Duke Kahanamoku rode the waves of Waikiki. Duke was famous for swimming. He was an Olympic Medalist. And he is even more famous for popularizing surfing, helping to make it into a worldwide sport. But mostly he was the sheriff. For almost thirty years Duke was the Sheriff in Honolulu. The Duke was no kook. Neither is Trump. The US has a new sheriff in town. For good or ill, Trump is another Big Kahuna. (I know, my editors want me to cut this paragraph out, no kooky writing allowed)

The Big Kahuna

Duke Kahanamoku (born August 26, 1890, near Waikiki, Hawaii [now in the United States]—died January 22, 1968, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.) was a Hawaiian surfer and swimmer who won three Olympic gold medals for the United States and who for several years was considered the greatest freestyle swimmer in the world. He was perhaps most widely known for developing the flutter kick, which largely replaced the scissors kick.