Desperate Trump’s Greenland gamble

United States President Donald Trump is facing a foreign policy crisis.

With an election year looming he does not have a single overseas achievement of any worth to take to the electorate — rather it has been a catalogue of disasters.

If any further evidence was needed, the hilarious episode over Trump’s suggestion that he could buy the self-governing Danish Territory of Greenland provided it.

Horrified White House aides tried to pass it off as a joke and might have succeeded if the president had not got upset at Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s blunt put-down of the proposal and cancelled a State visit.

That gave credence to the view that he was really serious when he described the transfer of sovereignty as a “real estate deal” something which another Danish official said “was proof he has gone mad”.

It is not the first time the president has believed that any problem could be solved if enough money was thrown at it. The first phase of his plan to solve the decades-long dispute between the Israelis and the Palestinians involved a pay-out of $50 billion to kick-start the Palestinian economy.

Seen by most Middle East commentator as a clumsy attempt at bribery, the so-called “deal of the century” has been so thoroughly rejected that phase two of the plan has not yet surfaced and may well be permanently shelved.

Trump will no doubt seek to promote his series of meetings with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un as a diplomatic success, rather than the sad non-events they actually are.

After two summits and a third meeting at the Korean Demilitarised Zone, Kim’s standing in the world has been boosted; his nuclear program is intact and he is still firing off rockets to the consternation of his near neighbours.

Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, better known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, has not forced Teheran back to the negotiating table, has heightened tensions in the Middle East and put him at odds with his European allies.

There was no reason to do this other than to trash the signature foreign policy achievement of his despised predecessor in office Barrack Obama, a vindictive act which has lost the US much respect around the world and put it at odds with some of its strongest allies.

Finally, for all his bluster, the US is being hurt by the trade war he began with China, while Beijing maintains the iron grip on its own economy and shows no sign of backing down.

Domestically Trump can point to a strongly functioning economy, achieved mainly through making a bonfire of environmental legislation; a tough, some would call brutal, crackdown on refugees and undocumented migrants, and consist resistance to any form of gun control even as mass shootings multiply.

This works well with his constituency — the president has shown no interest in working with those who show the slighted degree of disagreement with him — and may even be sufficient to win him re-election given Republican gerrymandering and the notorious apathy of many American voters.   

However, Trump’s giant ego demands he also strides Caesar-like on the global stage so expect more ‘initiatives’ such as the Greenland purchase in the coming weeks and months.

Be ready for more angry responses, temper tantrums and not so veiled threats if he does not get his way.

I am sure the international community can hardly wait.