Originally Posted by
Hubcapped
respectfully disagree. Antagonism does not work in the long run. The story gets spun at home that america is an unstable ally and shouldn’t be worked with, and (insert X country’s) political apparatus will need to follow the will of the people in order to stay in office. Im all for establishing fair deals, but you keep your ego out of it and apply pressure behind the scenes imho.
Generally I agree, this was way over the top in tone and threats against allies.
But current beltway speculation is that what Trump (actually some of his long-time, less visible policy advisors) wanted was access to Greenland without the Danish parliament getting to vote on every gravel road, temporary trailer, etc. There are rumblings that he got that in the draft deal, and it's fairly obvious that he wouldn't have got it by asking nicely.
Hopefully Trump himself will personally take all of the heat for this, and after the Bad Cop is gone the angst can mostly go with him.
In fairness something needed to change eventually, partly due to RU's recent behavior but also due to ice melting. Denmark didn't look like they had any interest or intent... Greenland is a lot of auxiliary territory to handle for a country that size.