Snapshot: The Bully in Davos
Donald Trump lied to, threatened and insulted once-steadfast European allies today, even as he insisted he would "not use force" in Greenland
Donald Trump is a pathological liar, a bully and an offensive boor. He proved it once again in Davos, Switzerland today at the World Economic Forum. In the process, he strongly made the case for why Europe and the world can no longer count on America as a credible or reliable partner, at least as long as he occupies the White House.
His lies came fast and furious: “Inflation has been defeated”…”fastest turnaround in American history” from “misery, failure and decline”… “hottest country anywhere in the world”…an “economic miracle.” You get the idea.
Looking at business and political leaders from around the world, he spewed insults: “Without us, most of the countries don’t even work”… “Canada lives because of the United States”…Switzerland—“they’re only good because of us…“Without us, right now you'd all be speaking German and Japanese.”
And then there was the topic of Greenland, which everyone waited to hear with bated breath. Here’s the headline: “I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.”
Under ordinary circumstances, with a sane president, these words would be a reason to exhale. But Greenland, Denmark and Europe are dealing with a pathological liar and a bully. These remarks were surrounded by demands for “immediate negotiations” and a quid pro quo because of U.S. support for NATO: “All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland.” This autonomous, self-governed territory of the Kingdom of Denmark—”that’s our territory.”
Trump also underlined —with a thinly veiled threat—that Greenland is “undefended.” And he made sure the room heard his threat of violence: "We probably won't get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won't do that.”
We can be sure that this issue is not going away, especially as long as he’s surrounded by sycophants in his Cabinet and Congress backing him up. The sober recognition of the severe damage Trump has caused—both in his latest demand to own Greenland and his abusive use of tariffs—motivated wise and incisive words from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday. (Read the speech here.)
“Let me be direct: We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” he said. And Carney talked about what it means “for middle powers to ‘live the truth.’”
“First, it means naming reality,” he explained. “Stop invoking ‘rules-based international order’ as though it still functions as advertised. Call it what it is: a system of intensifying great power rivalry where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as a weapon of coercion.”
And he concluded with this:
We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn’t mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy. But we believe that from the fracture, we can build something better, stronger, more just.
This is the task of the middle powers. The countries that have the most to lose from a world of fortresses and the most to gain from genuine co-operation.
The powerful have their power. But we have something too—the capacity to stop pretending, to name reality, to build our strength at home and to act together.
Mark Carney was talking about Canada and the way forward economically with a dangerous and unreliable bully believing he can use coercion, force and the threat of (or the actual use of) violence to achieve his ends. But the prime minister also laid out a path forward for all of us opposing Trump’s America.
Nostalgia is not a strategy. The old order is not coming back. We must name reality. We should pursue genuine co-operation, act together and believe that we can build something better and more just.
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Your article while excellent, is so very, very sad for Americans like myself. I’m a Boomer, post war. I’ve only know US stability. This is at once frightening but also so disheartening. I wish it were different. My heart and brain are breaking.
We should read and re-read the words of Mark Carny and make them our credo, going forward. Save for the economic suffering it might inflict on some of us, I say it might be time to rethink how the US is organized. Perhaps a coalition of regional affiliations of states with shared goals might work better than the cluster-fu*ck we've been suffering with for too long.