Here’s another Trump move that’s already backfired.
Step Up Spying on Greenland
The Wall Street Journal reports U.S. Orders Intelligence Agencies to Step Up Spying on Greenland
The U.S. is stepping up its intelligence-gathering efforts regarding Greenland, drawing America’s spying apparatus into President Trump’s campaign to take over the island, according to two people familiar with the effort.
Several high-ranking officials under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard issued a “collection emphasis message” to intelligence-agency heads last week. They were directed to learn more about Greenland’s independence movement and attitudes on American resource extraction on the island.
The classified message asked agencies, whose tools include surveillance satellites, communications intercepts and spies on the ground, to identify people in Greenland and Denmark who support U.S. objectives for the island.
James Hewitt, a National Security Council spokesman, said the White House doesn’t comment on intelligence matters, but added: “The president has been very clear that the U.S. is concerned about the security of Greenland and the Arctic.”
In a statement, Gabbard said: “The Wall Street Journal should be ashamed of aiding deep state actors who seek to undermine the President by politicizing and leaking classified information. They are breaking the law and undermining our nation’s security and democracy.”
Hoot of the Day
Exactly what classified information did the WSJ leak?
How did they get it?
Anyone looking for leaks of classified information should be targeting Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Take Greenland by Force?
“We need Greenland for national security and even international security, and we’re working with everybody involved to try and get it,” Trump said in a joint address to Congress in March. “One way or the other, we’re going to get it.”
Vice President JD Vance, then-National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright traveled to Greenland in late March, sparking outrage from Danish leaders and Greenlandic residents.
The visit puts “completely unacceptable pressure on Greenland, Greenlandic politicians and the Greenlandic population,” as well as on Denmark, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish television in advance of the delegation.
“President Trump is serious,” she said. “He wants Greenland.”
Asked by NBC News in an interview that aired Sunday whether he would rule out seizing Greenland by force, Trump demurred.
“I don’t rule it out,” he said. “I don’t say I’m going to do it, but I don’t rule out anything. No, not there. We need Greenland very badly. Greenland is a very small amount of people, which we’ll take care of, and we’ll cherish them, and all of that. But we need that for international security.”
Denmark to Summon US Envoy Over Report of Greenland Spying Directive
Please note Denmark to Summon US Envoy Over Report of Greenland Spying Directive
Denmark has said that it will summon the US ambassador to Copenhagen to respond to reports that US intelligence agencies have been ordered to increase espionage in Greenland.
The Danish foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said on Wednesday that he was concerned about the report in the Wall Street Journal, telling the Ritzau news agency: “It worries me a lot, because we don’t spy between friends.”
Speaking on his way to a meeting in Warsaw, he added: “I can’t know if it’s true because it’s in a newspaper. But it doesn’t seem to be strongly rejected by those who speak out. That worries me.”
High-ranking officials working under Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, issued the instruction to agency heads in a “collection emphasis message”, the Journal reported.
The Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency were all included in the message. It told chiefs to study Greenland’s independence movement and attitudes to American efforts to extract resources on the island, according to the Journal, citing two unnamed officials familiar with the matter.
Seasoned intelligence operatives say the Arctic island of about 56,000 inhabitants has not historically been a target of US espionage activity.
The move will further alarm Denmark, a US ally and Nato member, which has repeatedly vowed that the island is not available for sale or annexation. The country is planning to spend $1.5bn to protect Greenland, which has autonomous status under Denmark’s constitutional monarchy.
Trump’s Threats Push Greenlanders Closer to Denmark
As anyone with an ounce of common sense might suspect, Trump’s Threats Push Greenlanders Closer to Denmark
NUUK, Greenland—Kaj Sandgreen waited patiently in a sleek concert hall here last week, as hundreds of others lined the snow-blanketed street outside and cheered as King Frederik X of Denmark arrived.
“Unlike Trump, the king respects us,” the 63-year-old Sandgreen said minutes before shaking hands with the king, who was clad in olive cargo pants and a puffer jacket emblazoned with the red-white Greenlandic and Danish flags. “It’s so good for him to come here and show that he cares about Greenlanders at this chaotic time when we fear an invasion from the United States.”
“Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vice President JD Vance said during his visit to a U.S. military base in northern Greenland in late March, as he reaffirmed the American claim on the island.
But for now, at least, this pressure from Washington has had an opposite effect on the 56,600 Greenlanders, most of whom are indigenous Inuit people who jealously guard their culture. In recent weeks, Greenland and Denmark have moved closer together as officials in Nuuk and Copenhagen sought to reinvigorate their relationship and to look with fresh eyes at outstanding problems.
“If the Americans ever come here, we would forget about the Greenlandic past and culture, and it would be sad if the big history of this country just disappears,” said Elias Walbohm, a 17-year-old high-school student, who also came to meet the king at the concert hall.
A poster displayed for sale at the venue illustrated a caricatured view of life in Greenland under American rule. It showed a brand-new Trump Tower in the capital, Nuuk, with gunmen in red MAGA hats riding Teslas around town. The local Greenlanders were pictured behind barbed wire in a reservation, with tourists charged $200 to visit them.
The island’s new government should focus, together with Denmark, on ensuring that it isn’t overthrown by Washington, said Pipaluk Lynge, the new head of the Greenland parliament’s foreign-affairs committee.
“We know it’s not about the people, it’s never been about the people. It’s about our land, our resources, our oil, our minerals. Trump sees us as real estate that you can buy, and we are really offended by that,” she said. “The relationship with Denmark will always be complicated because they were the colonial nation, but we can’t get through this without them.”
Danish lawmaker Rasmus Jarlov said that, as a first step, the American consulate in Nuuk, opened in 2020, must be closed down. “I cannot imagine that the Americans would allow foreign agents in the U.S. if they had an openly declared agenda of undermining the United States,” he said. “It’s clear that the Americans will be working on splitting Greenland and Denmark apart and discrediting our presence in Greenland, which would then allow the Americans to take over.”
The new Greenland government, elected in March and consisting of parties that won 74% of the vote, has refused Washington’s entreaties. Greenland’s new prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, traveled to Copenhagen last month. He flew back home with Frederik—a highly choreographed visit that aimed to symbolize the closing of ranks.
As the king and Nielsen sailed amid turquoise icebergs in the Nuuk fjord system last week, a Danish Navy offshore patrol ship passed by, showcasing Denmark’s growing military commitment to the island.
“The main message from Greenland to the U.S. administration is that you can’t buy your way into Greenland,” said Aaja Chemnitz, one of two lawmakers representing the island in the Danish parliament in Copenhagen.
Greenlanders have had enough of Trump. So have Canadians and even Australians.
Trump’s tariffs and obnoxious comments about Canada tilted the recent Canada election to Liberals.
And the Greenland election shifted to independence from Denmark later rather than sooner.
But hey, blame the WSJ instead of Trump’s big mouth and blatantly stupid actions.
Trump just cannot control himself. Trump posting a picture of Himself as Pope is another example of extreme stupidity.
Trump thought it was cute. The cult called it “epic”.
I nearly responded “epic stupidity” but decided against. Unfortunately, it’s just normal everyday routine Trumpian stupidity.
If you disagree, then please tell me how many votes Republicans might gain in the midterms and how many he might lose over such foolishness.