The Trump administration really is beyond the pale. Each day, a spokesperson says something that tops the previous day’s ridiculous announcement. You think they’ve reached “peak ridiculous,” and every day, you’re wrong.
Recently, Jake Tapper interviewed Stephen Miller, the Deputy Chief for Policy and Homeland Security, on CNN. In the short video clip I saw, Miller was arguing that Greenland should be part of the United States.
Frankly, the conversation is astonishing. I transcribed the good bits.
Miller: The President has be clear for months now that the United States should be the nation that has Greenland as part of our overall security apparatus.Tapper: Right but can you say that military action is off the table?
Tapper: Right but can you say that military action is off the table?
Miller: It wouldn’t be military action against Greenland. Greenland has a population of 30 000. The real question is by what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? What is the basis of their territorial claim? … The United States is the power of NATO. For the United States to secure the Arctic region, and protect and defend NATO, and NATO interests, obviously, Greenland should be part of the United States. And so that’s a conversation we’re going to have as a country. That’s the process we’re going to have as a community of nations.
Tapper: You can’t just take it off the table that the US would use military force to seize Greenland
Miller: Nobody’s going to fight the United States over Greenland.
So there you go. If the US wants Greenland, and they do, they feel justified in just taking it.
The United States has done some remarkably shading things in the past, but I’ve always felt that, on balance, they were a force for good in the world. Clearly, that’s over. The US is concerned with itself, and no one better get in their way. The Great Experiment is over.