A newspaper owned by conservative media tycoon Rupert Murdoch has ripped Donald Trump’s assault on NATO as he forges ahead with his mad push to seize Greenland by any means necessary.
“For more than 75 years, the fondest dream of Russian strategy has been to divide Western Europe from the U.S. and break the NATO alliance,” The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board wrote.
“That is now a possibility as President Trump presses his campaign to capture Greenland no matter what the locals or its Denmark owner thinks,” the newspaper added.
Trump’s campaign has escalated sharply over the past week amid a largely symbolic deployment of troops from several allied European countries to the Arctic region, itself an autonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO ally.
After several European leaders signed a joint letter strongly opposing U.S. attempts to pressure Denmark and Greenland into annexation, Trump responded with threats of tariffs of 10 percent starting in February, then rising to 25 percent in June if a transfer deal is not agreed to by then.
“This bullying plays poorly with the European public, making it harder for politicians to give Mr Trump what he wants on Greenland or anything else,” the Journal’s editors wrote.
“The message to these countries is that no deal with Mr Trump can be trusted because he’ll blow it up if he feels it serves his larger political purposes,” they added.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to annex the Arctic region since assuming office for the second time last January.
He has now ratcheted up the pressure in the wake of his lightning invasion of Venezuela earlier this month to kidnap despot Nicolas Maduro, who now faces narcoterrorism charges in a New York federal court.
The attack on Caracas appears to have signaled Trump’s sharp departure from a prior push to model himself as a “president of peace” after his snub for the Nobel Peace Prize in November.
It emerged Monday that he has since written to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, all but disavowing his previous, self-appointed title.
“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,” Trump reportedly wrote.
Støre has responded by pointing out to Trump, not for the first time, that the Nobel Committee is an independent entity. It is not affiliated with the Norwegian government.
Trump’s orbit reportedly holds sizable interests in the U.S. acquisition of Greenland.
The Guardian reported last week that billionaire Robert Lauder, who’s understood to have first suggested the move in 2018, has spent the past few years purchasing assets and forging business relationships in the Arctic territory.
According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, two former employees of the Trump Organization have now also purchased shares in a mineral-mining enterprise in the region.
“It’s true that Europe may not be in a position to resist if Mr. Trump really wants to go to war over the island,” the Journal wrote. “But say good-bye to NATO.”
The newspaper’s editorial board went on to say that “the sad irony is that China and Russia may be the biggest winners,” even as Trump “justifies his Greenland necessity in the name of deterring both.”
Trump’s tariff moves over the weekend are also unlikely to play well with his longer-term economic priorities, the editors said.
“The trade tax on Britain could upset an agreement Mr. Trump struck last year under which Britain will pay more for pharmaceuticals in exchange for Washington dropping tariffs on medication imports from the U.K.,” the newspaper noted.
“Why Mr. Trump would want to head into midterm elections foisting higher prices on voters worried about affordability is a mystery,” it added.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment on this story.
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