Trump Channels Al Capone, Proving You Can Get Much Further With a Kind Word and a Gun Than You Can With a Kind Word Alone
Well it looks like the latest outbreak of Trump-y-steria is abating. Smelling salt, rubber sheet, adult diaper, and fainting couch salesmen hardest hit.
The source of the outbreak was, of course, Greenland. Trump made a series of blood curdling threats–curdling Euro blood, anyway. Greenland is vital to American security. Sell it to me or we invade.
The end is nigh! Nato is dead! America is a rogue state! We must surrender to China! (Tell how that is supposed to help, exactly). (Macron has been the surrenderer in chief, which I guess makes sense).
(Macron rocked Davos in aviators. Presumably because his wife rocked him upside the head again).
Scott Bessent joined in smacking around Macron for his poseur act on Greenland:
“If this is all President Macron has to do when the European, when the French budget, is in shambles, I would suggest that he focuses on other things for the French people,” Bessent said.
Then shortly after Trump torched the assembled “elite” in a Davos speech, thereby further amplifying the hysteria (as hard as that is to believe), he and Nato head Mark Rutte announced an agreement on a “framework” for Greenland. In essence, the US will gain control over relatively small parts of the island, including sites for the “Golden Dome” missile shield as well as locations for other installations that allow the US to project power into the Arctic, and crucially to constrain Chinese and Russian access there. Further, the US will obtain access to mineral resources–and China will not.
In other words, everything Trump wanted. And the price: zero.
The Art of the Deal. When will the bedwetters actually read the book?
The outcome suggests the process went something like this. Trump asked for these things, in private, sometime back. The Danes demurred. Trump asked more insistently, and publicly. The Danes continued to refuse, and the rest of the European sob sisters leapt to Denmark’s side. So Trump started to threaten publicly, and turned the threats to 11. After stalwart declarations of Never!, the Danes and the rest of the Euros folded.
Of course the usual idiots are saying “TACO” because Trump didn’t carry through on his threats. No, morons. He didn’t carry through on his threats because he didn’t have to. They worked.
They could have spared the world the drama if they had just played ball. But with them behaving like recalcitrant mules, sitting on their haunches and braying loudly, Trump felt compelled to hit them between the eyes with a 2×4. To get their attention. Which he clearly did.
The Euros have acted like the injured party throughout this contretemps. But it takes two to disagree. There would have been no threat to Nato if the Danes and Europeans had been more cooperative earlier this year, or back in 2019 when Trump first indicated that he views Greenland as vital to US security, and that Europe cannot be relied on to provide that security. (How could he ever get that idea?)
The Euros have shamelessly shirked on their sworn collective security obligations for decades. Giving in on Greenland would be a reasonable gesture of contrition and gratitude. But no. They fought their benefactor, ungrateful bastards that they are.
So Trump had to prove that the old adage (attributed to Al Capone) is true: “You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.” But it came to that because of the Europeans.
The Euro deployment to Greenland was performative idiocy that was totally counterproductive. It no doubt infuriated Trump. Further it showed the exact opposite of what they intended. It didn’t show their ability to defend Greenland. It showed their utter incapacity to do so.
The UK sent a troop. Not troops. One officer. The Germans sent a token deployment–for a couple of days. They had to fly a Polish commercial jet to get there. Just how, exactly, could Europe sustain any deployment, no matter how small, to defend against the Russians or whomever? Without the US, they would be starving and frozen within a few days.
And it was clear that their rhetoric at the time suggested that they were showing solidarity with Denmark and would defend the island against . . . the US. Which has defended them for 80 years.
Denmark and many Euros dismissed Trump’s warnings about growing Chinese penetration into the Arctic. “No Chinese ships have been there.”
Really? Tell Danish intelligence.
And the Chinese are crying.
If they didn’t care about Greenland, they wouldn’t be.
The Arctic has become the cockpit for great power rivalry. Greenland occupies the central location in that great power rivalry. This is especially true in a world of ballistic missiles with trajectories over the Arctic, and with more open water in the Arctic. Its strategic importance to the US is manifest.
Note that the US seized Greenland in the immediate aftermath of the German invasion of Denmark. It played a vital role in the war, not just as an important air base used in the Battle of the Atlantic, but as a location of weather stations that were vital throughout the war, including notably the weather forecast on which the D-Day invasion hinged. The Germans attempted to infiltrate Greenland on multiple times.
Greenland’s strategic importance to the US is greater now than it was then. And since in protecting itself the US also defends Europe, and since Europe cannot secure Greenland like the US can, it is in Europe’s interest to give the US a free hand there. Their recalcitrance and belligerency is self-defeating. They have been slitting their throats to spite Trump.
I’ve been saying “Europe.” I’ve left out Canada. That is a grave oversight. American suzerainty over Greenland bolsters Canadian security more than any other nation’s, given that nation’s huge Arctic coastline.
Yet despite this, Canada’s smarmy, execrable PM Mark Carney pledged his nation to defend Greenland . . . against the US. He (as noted in a prior post) outdid even Macron in toadying up to China pour epater les Americains. And he capped it off with a supercilious speech in Davos which declared the death of the Rule Based Order and called for a coalition of “middling nations” to operate in opposition to the great powers–and pointedly the US.
Of course, he received nothing but hosannas for his rhetoric–empty though it was.
For one thing, yes, the New World Order is now the Dead World Order, but Trump didn’t kill it. He’s just been delivering an acerbic obituary, and moving forcefully to position the US in a Westphalian world contending with revisionist powers. For another, the idea that the middling nations are able, let alone willing, to be a counterweight is farcical.
What the hell is the EU but a coalition of middling nations (and piddling ones)? Its primary characteristics are weakness and indecision. They have not contributed to Nato anywhere near commensurately with their population or economic weight due to free rider problems–which will not go away.
And Canada is the most egregious free rider of all. The once proud and powerful Canadian military, which was stalwart during both World Wars, is now a complete joke.
In sum, all this drama over Greenland was completely unnecessary. And rather than being the victims of American bullying, they brought it on themselves. If they had acted in their own interests, rather than behaving like ungrateful brats hanging on to their glory days and resenting their (self-inflicted) power deficit with the US, the same result would have been achieved, to the benefit of both sides, minus the hysteria.
The Danes could have called Trump’s bluff by saying “I know, we’ll exile all our Moslems there, surely you would approve of that? From shithole, to Denmark, to icey waste. Just the ticket. Please send some ICE people to help us with the work.”
(The Danes often speak English so well that they can make execrable jokes like that.)
Comment by dearieme — January 22, 2026 @ 5:51 pm
Ave Trump!
You got what you wanted without having to pay a cent.
As a Brit I’ve been watching this, wondering how stupid our elected leaders could be, but their stupidity surpassed even my expectations.
I wonder how the Danish electorate will react when they realise that with a bit more cunning they could have sold it for billions.
Comment by philip — January 22, 2026 @ 7:37 pm
Remember Sir Lancelot responding to the taunter(John Cleese) “Is there somebody else we can talk to?”
Comment by Sabena — January 23, 2026 @ 12:52 am
Yes “Copium” Craig, this whole debacle was sorted out by Trump and Rutte in a trice over a hot brew, without any Danish representation.
The outcome suggests the process went something like this.
Except it didn’t, as has been well publicised. The Danes offered to reopen discussions about the 1951 basing treaty – and access for mineral exploration – in the middle of last year, but Trump wasn’t interested and carried on with his maximalist demands. Trump finally caved under pressure from Europe and seniors in the GOP and military (who’ve finally grown some stones).
Comment by David Mercer — January 23, 2026 @ 2:15 am
“In other words, everything Trump wanted.”
Trump got exactly what he already had before his mental-fog induced this debacle. Seriously: What additional concessions did Trump actually get here? Are you seriously suggesting that the US doesn’t ALREADY get official control of the bases that it ALREADY had the right to put in Greenland?
“China & Russia pose no threat in the Arctic generally, and Greenland specifically”
Don’t be silly. We’re saying they pose no risk of actually taking Greenland by force.
“it showed the exact opposite of what they intended … It showed their utter incapacity to do so.”
Why are you implying that we think we could defeat the world’s only superpower? In what world does a handful of soldiers constitute an actual show of force? You know this. We know that you know this. I can only conclude that you’re angling for a job in the current administration by parroting their propaganda about the incredible threats in the world and the incredible weakness of your allies. Well, I’ve got bad news for you. As somebody who is:
A: An academic
B: Outspoken
C: Competent
D: Former military
You are everything that this administration hates. Shilling on your blog is unlikely to overcome that.
Comment by HibernoFrog — January 23, 2026 @ 2:57 am
I think the Copium Kid clown cowboy* would have been better served sticking to the line one of Trump’s flunkies trotted out on Tuesday evening, namely that “It was all a big joke and the Europeans don’t understand his sense of humour”. How utterly embarrassing.
* Don’t worry kiddies (and ladies), he only shoots blanks!
Comment by David Mercer — January 23, 2026 @ 5:24 am
The entertainment value and the virtually certain betting gains for political insiders aside: has anyone been able to identify a single gain for the US from the whole charade? Otherwise zero seems like a fair market price for zero gain.
Comment by Ivan — January 23, 2026 @ 7:23 am
Ah yes, the Schrödinger’s Greenland strategy.
On January 6, the prof tells us that Trump’s Greenland bid was a perfectly sensible, good-faith offer—so sensible, in fact, that only “fools” and irrational Europeans would reject it. A straightforward deal, cruelly misunderstood by prideful Danes.
https://streetwiseprofessor.com/only-fools-would-turn-down-trumps-offer-of-green-for-greenland-the-euros-are-fools/
Fast-forward a couple of weeks, and—surprise!—the whole thing was apparently an Al Capone–style shakedown all along. The offer wasn’t meant to be accepted; it was merely the “kind word” before the gun came out. The coercion wasn’t a failure of diplomacy, it was *the plan*.
So which is it?
A rational win-win deal that reasonable actors should have embraced?
Or a calculated intimidation tactic whose rejection was always anticipated?
Because you don’t get to mock Europeans for not accepting a sincere offer and later brag that the offer was never really the point. That’s not 4-D chess—it’s retroactive narrative control. The strategy only becomes brilliant once the original argument collapses.
Funny how with Trump, every outcome proves genius, even when the explanation has to be rewritten after the fact.
Hiberno – you may be on to something!
Comment by [email protected] — January 23, 2026 @ 8:57 am
“Greenland’s strategic importance to the US is greater now than it was then.” Doofus explain us then oh please why the US reduced his presence from over 10,000 troops to around 200 now?
Comment by [email protected] — January 23, 2026 @ 9:16 am
“Most telling is that the US has little in the way of suitable military resources or experience for the Arctic. It is, for once, European Nato allies, especially the Scandinavians and Britain, who have Arctic-ready forces.
One military source noted that in last year’s Joint Viking exercise in northern Norway, American troops struggled.
Exercise commanders had to ask Finnish reservists, the most formidable Arctic warriors, who were playing the role of invaders in the war games, to go easy on the Americans. “The Finns had to be told to stop beating the Americans as it was embarrassing and demoralising for them,” a military source said.” (c) The Times
Comment by LL — January 23, 2026 @ 10:28 am
“Greenland’s strategic importance to the US is greater now than it was then.” C4 please also explain why Trump threatened to sanction the very countries which then sent troops to the territory? If it was all about security, then this should have been applauded. Not so much TACO, more FAFO.
(You’ve gotta laugh at the British contingent, a beautiful British understatement: “That should be sufficient to deter any American aggression”. Its almost as though we were trolling him. They’d probably heard from their deep-state sources in the US military that nothing was going to happen).
@LL I’ve heard something similar about alleged US mountain warfare troops being found wanting by our marines.
Comment by David Mercer — January 23, 2026 @ 12:17 pm
We’ve spent the last four years enduring a wall-to-wall spazz-out by western ‘leaders’ because Putin had the nerve to say ‘I need Ukraine for national security, and if you don’t give it to me, I have every right to take it.’
And those leaders were right to do so. Property rights, yes? The one thing stopping your neighbours telling you they need your house for their security, and you have 24 hours to vacate, or else.
Sure, they were utterly disingenuous – Putin was ready to negotiate, they preferred to force him to invade as a ruse to keep the US from going home. Oops. But the principle they stood on is important.
Anyway, now have Trump saying, guess what, ‘I need Greenland for national security, and if you don’t give it to me, I have every right to take it.’
It’s one thing for a KGB thug to wave his big stick around. But Trump acting like Putin = principle obliterated. Trust completely evaporated. Now, no one and nothing is secure, anywhere. And needlessly so – all Trump had to do was negotiate a deal, with all of the arm-twisting done quietly behind doors, as is the usual way of these things.
But no, Bigmouth had to go bigmouth.
What we’ve lost is a hell of a price to pay for a senile narcissist to get his own way. And we’re all going to pay it, as governments everywhere arm up, and shut down or intervene in markets.
Comment by Ex-Global Super-Regulator on Lunch Break — January 23, 2026 @ 7:14 pm
@12 “What we’ve lost is a hell of a price to pay for a senile narcissist to get his own way.”
Trump is certainly not senile. He’s not particularly narcissistic either. More like a personality high in HEXACO Extraversion
https://hexaco.org/scaledescriptions.
Given your description, the price to be paid is exacted by Eurocrats, not Trump. Aristocratic elites, balking at agreement because they couldn’t bear the injury of their irrelevance exposed to public view. And by that bluff American, no less. TDS on an international stage.
Comment by Pat Frank — January 24, 2026 @ 6:07 pm
Has Retard HQ yet claimed what Trump actually achieved in Davos, beyond insulting pretty much everyone in the room, and boring them senseless with his monotone? The notion of an idea of a concept of a framework of a deal?? That’s the thinnest of gruel to sustain yourself on.
Comment by David Mercer — January 25, 2026 @ 3:18 am
“Aristocratic elites”: If only. There’s no Noblesse Oblige about the EU. When it comes to the masses, broadly, EU = fuck you.
Comment by dearieme — January 25, 2026 @ 6:27 am
@15 – there wasn’t much noblesse oblige among the European aristocracy, either.
Elite betrayal of Enlightenment ethics is the true pandemic of our day.
Comment by Pat Frank — January 25, 2026 @ 11:05 am
@14 – David: “Has Retard HQ yet claimed…”
Nope. As yet, 10 Downing hasn’t weighed in. Neither has that bat-eared loon you call king.
Comment by Pat Frank — January 25, 2026 @ 11:07 am
@16 & 17: From vacuous pomposity to a lame effort to insult, between consecutive comments. Not much enlightenment on show there, Pat.
So nothing then, total radio silence? Quel surprise.
Comment by David Mercer — January 25, 2026 @ 1:34 pm
@LL. Er, have you heard of the 11th Airborne Division? 10th Mountain? Routine training by USMC for Arctic warfare? US experience in the Aleutians–and Greenland–during WWII?
Comment by cpirrong — January 25, 2026 @ 3:32 pm
@[email protected]–aka dipsit–Trump is reversing an error, and responding to a change in strategic circumstances.
This is not complicated. Except for retards.
Comment by cpirrong — January 25, 2026 @ 3:34 pm
@ “prof” You’re right, in your world, it’s not complicated: If Trump does it, it’s genius.
If he does the exact opposite five minutes later (like he did at Davos), that’s also genius. It must be so relaxing to have a world-view where ‘strategic circumstances’ just mean ‘whatever he tweeted this morning.
Comment by [email protected] — January 25, 2026 @ 10:20 pm