It really is something when self-proclaimed British “patriots” stand and applaud a foreign head of state who has launched an economic assault on their country – thereby imperilling the jobs and livelihoods of thousands of their compatriots – simply because he is angry that their government has objected to his plot to annex the territory of a sovereign nation.
Surely nobody who truly loved Britain or believed in the concepts of national sovereignty, borders and a rules-based order would feel the slightest shred of sympathy for Donald Trump’s plan to impose trade tariffs on European nations that won’t play ball with him over Greenland?
But that’s what certain “patriotic” voices are doing. Trust me, I’ve been arguing with some of them on social media over the past couple of days. And their position baffles me.
I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that Trump Derangement Syndrome does not afflict only the President’s enemies; some of his most passionate supporters suffer from it too. There seems to be no line that their hero might ever cross that would persuade them to offer even the mildest criticism of him. In that respect, they are beginning to resemble a cult.
Trump is a man who seems to be rapidly losing the plot. And I say that as someone on the Left who never joined in with the hysteria that accompanied his two election victories.
Though I am no admirer of the man, I felt that a Trump presidency would at least serve as a welcome antidote to the failed liberal-progressive order that had captured the US and much of the West. And I scoffed when my political allies talked of him as a new Hitler.
But Trump’s recent conduct on the global stage has been as shameful as it has been erratic. The disrespect he has shown to Denmark is indefensible. That country is a longstanding and dependable ally of the US.
When Islamic militants struck on 9/11 and Article 5 of the NATO treaty – the clause providing for collective defence among members – was invoked for the first time, the Danes stepped up.
In the ensuing war in Afghanistan, Denmark lost more soldiers per capita than any other coalition force. And Trump thanks the country by attempting to plunder a territory that has been in union with it for over 200 years.
You are no British patriot if you support Donald Trump's latest game of chicken - Paul Embery | Getty ImagesThe Trump worshippers talk pompously of how their man is fighting a “civilisational” battle on behalf of the entire West, and that his threat to grab Greenland is justified as part of that effort.
But what sort of civilisation are we defending if we allow demagogic leaders of powerful countries to pillage the territories of peaceable allies? Is such behaviour consistent with the values of freedom, democracy and liberty that we purport to cherish?
“Ah, but if Trump doesn’t take Greenland, the Russians or Chinese will,” they counter. Oh, really? Does anyone seriously believe that Putin or Xi is going to invade the territory of a NATO member, knowing, as they surely do, that it would spark a world war?
At any rate, under an existing treaty, agreed with Denmark in 1951, the US can place as many military facilities on Greenland as it deems necessary. There is no justification whatsoever for the White House’s insistence on ownership of the place.
When someone like the US’s former national security advisor John Bolton, a staunch “neocon” and a man who has supported pretty much every US intervention in modern times, describes his President’s actions over Greenland as “foolish and contrary to fundamental American interests”, you know that Trump has overstepped the mark.
What’s more, the President isn’t even carrying his own voters on the issue, with, according to a recent poll, just 17 per cent of Americans agreeing with his plan to acquire the territory.
I do wonder if the Trump cultists ever stop to ponder how their man is beginning to undermine the very things that apparently matter to them.
Take, for example, his approach to Canada. Trump’s belligerent attitude towards their country caused Canadians to return Mark Carney’s Liberal Party to power, just at a time when it appeared that the discredited liberal-progressive order was collapsing.
Similarly, Trump’s hostility towards Europe may well have the effect of setting back the national populism currently surging across the continent and solidifying support for the EU.
The cultists might also like to pay a bit of attention to history. When, in 1956, the Kremlin sent Soviet tanks into Hungary to crush a popular uprising against that country’s hardline communist government, it split the international Left, including here in Britain.
Many Leftists saw the aggression by Moscow as inexcusable and denounced it, whereas the hardcore believers (“tankies”, as they were to become known) defended it as part of the struggle for worldwide socialism. How one was regarded by other activists on the Left was, in the years that followed, often determined by what stance one took “on Hungary”.
I have a suspicion that Greenland will become the political Right’s Hungary. Trump’s aggression has the capacity to split the Right asunder and dictate how its activists will be seen in years to come. Do those who profess to believe in national sovereignty and borders – and the right of free countries to defend both – really mean it? Are they as committed to the values of freedom, democracy and liberty as they claim?
Whatever happens in the future, we should never forget where people stood on Greenland, and what they said about it, in the year 2026, when it really mattered.
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