Greenland Will Find Out
Plus: Lawfare in Minnesota, Netflix grows, and Kamala Harris considers her options.
On Monday, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen was asked whether President Donald Trump would forcibly invade Greenland. Rasmussen said he didn't believe that military action would occur. But he couldn't rule it out. "You can't leave anything out until the president himself has decided to leave anything out," Rasmussen said.
The Reason Roundup Newsletter by Liz Wolfe Liz and Reason help you make sense of the day's news every morning.
On the one hand, the U.S. invading Greenland to take control of the island nation is a completely ridiculous scenario. You almost have to laugh.
On the other hand, here's what Trump said yesterday afternoon when asked how far he was willing to go to acquire the country. "You'll find out."
Not: I won't use military force. Not: America won't invade another country. Not: Come on, don't be ridiculous.
No, when given the opportunity to rule out those scenarios, Trump pointedly refused to take military action off the table. And then his own press team decided to post on X the exchange, advertising it, just so everyone would know. That completely ridiculous scenario was a live possibility.
So now Greenland, along with the rest of us, will have to wait—and find out.
Trump famously likes to keep his options open. And often enough, the worst-case scenarios dreamed up by his critics don't come to pass. All of this might prove to be little more than another crazy episode of The Trump Show. But sometimes, well—sometimes Trump says a bunch of absurd stuff, and then there's a riot at the Capitol.
On this week's Reason Roundtable podcast, Matt Welch, Reem Ibrahim, Kat Rosenfield, and I talked about how to handle this Trumpian uncertainty. One big takeaway: Congress could eliminate Trump's power to use military force in Greenland with a vote. That no one expects America's legislators will actually do so is a shame on Congress, and a (sadly routine) dishonor to the American constitutional system.
Congress may be out for the snowbird special, but the stock market is not shrugging its shoulders. Tuesday was the worst day since October for U.S. stocks. Markets have tolerated a lot of potential instability so far. But with Trump's "drive to take over Greenland throwing the European and American alliance in disarray—and Japanese bonds plunging on concerns over the country's finances—the calm abruptly snapped," reports Bloomberg.
Beyond the calamities and absurdities, this is a crisis in the making, a potential breaking point for the free world. Trump's pursuit of Greenland is ramping up as world leaders gather at Davos.
In a stark speech at the elite confab, Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada called this moment a "rupture" and warned that "the rules-based order is fading."
Separately, French leader Emmanuel Macron delivered a not-so-subtle jab at America. Europe, he said, is "predictable, loyal, and where you know that the rule of the game is just the rule of law."
"We need more growth, we need more stability in this world, but we do prefer respect to bullies," Macron said. "We do prefer science to plotism, and we do prefer rule of law to brutality."
Europe has its own failures to answer for. And Trump himself seems unconcerned by mounting tensions. "I think that we will work something out where NATO is going to be very happy, and where we're going to be very happy," the president predicted.
But the recent spate of remarks from foreign leaders can be understood as a shot across the bow, not only at Trump, but at America's commitment to the rule of law and the classical liberal ideals that have united and underpinned the free world for the better part of a century.
Will that commitment survive? As with so many things: We'll find out.
Minnesotans, too, will have to find out what's going to happen with the state's showdown with the Trump administration over Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) surge into the Minneapolis area. Yesterday, two Democratic leaders in the state, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, were served with subpoenas.
Walz, whose tenure as governor saw massive Medicaid fraud, is hardly beyond criticism. But the Trump administration's legal bullying of political opponents has an all-too-familiar ring to it. Wasn't Trump, who complained so loudly about the (sometimes flawed and opportunistic) legal proceedings against him while he was out of office, supposed to be against lawfare?
The conflict between local and federal officials isn't limited to the elected class. Yesterday at a press conference, a Minnesota police chief described how ICE had violated the civil rights of his own officer. This isn't some radical protester. He starts by insisting that immigration enforcement is necessary, and then he says that he's heard story after story from his community about individuals being stopped and forced to show papers. He then describes how his own officers have fallen victim while off duty. In his telling, a female off-duty officer was stopped by ICE agents who, with guns drawn, demanded to see her papers. When she tried to capture the incident on her phone, it was knocked out of her hands. (The First Amendment protects the right to film law enforcement.)
America shouldn't ever be a "papers, please" society. Sadly, Minnesotans are finding out that in some cases, it is.
Scenes from Washington, D.C.: Time to stock up on Doritos and whiskey, and unpack the cable-knit sweaters. It sure looks like the nation's capital is going to get a whole lot of snow this coming weekend. No worries, though, because Washington, D.C., deals really well with ice and snow. (This is sarcasm.) I'm already hearing stories of bare shelves in grocery stores and grocery delivery services that are delivering partial orders.
QUICK HITS
- Will Democrats impeach Trump if they regain control of Congress?
- Microsoft head Satya Nadella says the AI boom might be at risk. Maybe someone should ask ChatGPT about this?
- Netflix revenue and profits keep going up, up, up. The streamer is currently in the midst of a bid to purchase storied movie studio Warner Bros. Discovery, plus all of the studio's cable assets, including CNN, and yesterday altered its offer, which had previously consisted of a mix of cash and stock, to an all-cash deal. Seems like they can afford it.
- "The @realDonaldTrump account [on Truth Social] has published more than 6,000 posts since the president took office a year ago," according to The Wall Street Journal. That's a lot of social media activity. And I say that as someone who has not exactly abstained from posting. Seems like someone in the Oval Office needs to touch grass?
- Is veganism maybe, sort of, kind of…over?
- Kamala Harris is "not someone who likes being out and about. She doesn't really want to engage with people in a way that isn't already orchestrated," a Democratic consultant told Politico. No kidding. I simply cannot imagine why anyone, including Harris, would think that she might be a good presidential candidate in 2028.
