How to turn Trump into your little biatch

Trump does not like to be Mette's little biatch (Source: here)

Donald Trump will never own Greenland. This is abundantly clear following yesterday's announcement of a new defence pact between Denmark, Greenland, and the United States.

In fact, Mette Frederiksen, the Danish Prime Minister, just showed the world how you turn Trump into your little biatch.

On the very day, when Pentagon announced that the US may pull 25,000 troops from Europe, the Danish government actually managed to get Trump to step up the defence of Greenland. Under the terms of the agreement, Denmark and Greenland will not cede a single inch of territorial sovereignty, a very far cry from Trump's original ambition to "own" Greenland.

In fact, it is difficult to spot any major concessions on the part of Denmark and Greenland in this deal, which has yet to be given a formal title. Remember that the US already had the right to place more troops in Greenland under the 1951 Defence of Greenland Agreement, which was in effect prior to the whole Trump brouhaha.

As far as I can see, there are only two material differences between the old and the new deals. First, non-NATO military is now formally banned from Greenland. Second, new investments in the territory will be subject to screening provided the investments come from non-NATO countries, are above a certain size, and go into certain strategic sectors (such as rare earths).

However, the ban on non-NATO military presence in Greenland - think Russia - only increases the value of the deal for Greenland and Denmark, especially since enforcement will effectively fall to the Americans. As for screening of foreign investments in Greenland, this was already being done under existing arrangements.

The new Greenland deal is therefore little more than a formalisation, renaming, and modest expansion of rights the US has already held for decades. Trump has basically strengthened the US military commitment to defend Greenland with next to nothing in return. Thank you very much, Trump!

Mette Frederiksen has surely earned the right to gloat, not that she would ever dream of doing so in public. She is far too smart. In fact, she deliberately never met Trump face-to-face during the entire negotiations. Instead, she worked behind the scenes to build strong alliances with Greenland and NATO partners, relying on third parties to pressure Trump. She complemented these diplomatic efforts with toughness by putting troops on the ground in Greenland. The spectre of direct military confrontation between NATO partners was more than Trump could stomach, which is why he caved in at Davos.

That is how it is done. That is how you turn Trump into your little biatch.

The End