“Shockingly, our ‘illustrious’ NATO ally, the UK, is now planning to cede Diego Garcia Island, the site of an important US military base, to Mauritius, without any reason or reason.”
Welcome to Tuesday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Like many of his peers, the British leader has been trying to keep Donald Trump close since taking office a year ago, believing flattery was the best approach to weathering the US president’s narcissistic vagaries.
But now, as President Trump prepares to fly to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Starmer finds himself joining the ranks of those who have been insulted by the US president, or whose private messages to him have been shared with the world.
“It would be an extremely foolish move for the UK to cede such vitally important land,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding: “This is one of the very long national security reasons why we must acquire Greenland.”
Perhaps President Trump’s rant was prompted by comments made by the British prime minister on Monday that the president’s threats to impose tariffs on allies and take Greenland for himself were “completely wrong.”
Whatever it was, it had the effect of a 180-degree reversal in the White House’s previous support for Britain’s decision to hand over the Indian Ocean islands to Mauritius. In May, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed the deal as a “historic agreement” and a “monumental achievement.”
Shortly afterward, British government officials sent to speak to the media called for calm.
Emily Thornberry, a senior Labor politician, told the BBC: “I’m in favor of sitting back and looking at this for a bit and seeing what happens next. We’re getting a lot of messages and stuff at the moment.”
She was certainly right about Trump using his social media accounts overnight. French President Emmanuel Macron was also caught up in the maelstrom.
Just before posting a supposedly AI-generated image of himself showing European leaders at the White House a map of North America with both Canada and Greenland emblazoned with American flags, Trump had pasted a (real) message from Macron.
“Friends, we are completely aligned on Syria and we can do great things on Iran. I don’t understand what we are doing in Greenland,” Macron’s message began, hinting at the possibility of hosting a G7 meeting in Paris on Thursday.
The French leader added a little extra vavaboom as a sweetener at the end.
“Let’s have dinner together in Paris on Thursday before you go back to America.”
Perhaps the idea was to stir up memories of 2017, when Macron and Trump dined together at the Eiffel Tower on Bastille Day after Trump was the guest of honor at the annual parade.
In any case, those hectic days are long gone.
On Monday, when President Trump was asked by reporters for his reaction to Macron’s rejection of his offer to serve on the Peace Commission, he immediately responded:
“‘Well, no one wants him because he’s going to retire soon.’
ah.
Recent betrayals of private messages include President Trump circulating a message to Norway’s prime minister accusing Norway of disrespecting him over the Nobel Peace Prize, and Marco Rubio’s (apparently surreptitious) slip-up when he read a memo during an on-camera comment about Venezuela.
Current NATO Secretary-General in all accounts of toe-curling exchanges with President Trump
The general is never far away.
Mark Rutte is tall, so he’s probably used to crouching low to avoid hitting his head.
“Mr. President, Dear Donald. What you accomplished today in Syria is remarkable. I will use my media presence in Davos to highlight your work there, in Gaza, and in Ukraine. I am committed to finding a way forward in Greenland. I can’t wait to meet you, Mark.”
That object lesson on meanness was also pushed by Trump on Truth Social.
Of course, Rutte has a form. He once famously called Trump “Dad.”
“And Papa sometimes has to use strong words to stop that,” he said, sitting across from President Trump at a NATO meeting last year.
President Trump, who likes to frame international relations in a way that everyone can understand, just likened Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to a playground fight.
“You know, they’re fighting hard. You can’t stop them. You can easily stop them by letting them fight for a few minutes.”
Words are easy and empty, but encounters on camera are revealing
“I mean, what would I say in that situation?” we ponder, feeling a twinge of sympathy for the NATO Secretary-General as we watch his confused reaction.
California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, told Sky News he had had enough of this crazy behavior.
“They should have brought a bunch of knee pads to all the world leaders. That means handing out crowns and Nobel Prizes. It’s really pathetic,” he said.
European elites gathered in Switzerland ahead of Trump’s arrival on Wednesday may be envious of such brashness.
The challenge of how to deal with the US president appears to be growing more intense by the minute as Europe’s stakes grow ever higher.
