Eliyahu Gasson | editor-in-chief

Back when I edited opinions, The Duke would run one or two editorials on President Donald Trump’s administration per issue. We don’t really do that anymore, and for a good reason: It’s exhausting and difficult to follow.

This administration had managed to survive scandal after scandal, made all the more possible by each past scandal. The American conscious has been desensitized over the last 10-or-so years to the point where the president of the United States of America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, is allowed to kidnap foreign leaders and bring them stateside, evade Congress by simply not listening to them and openly threaten our allies over trivial pursuits. Actions that in past administrations may have been grounds for impeachment now go unanswered save for a strongly worded statement from Democratic leadership and maybe one or two Republican politicians.

One of the most notable controversies of late is Trump’s obsession with Greenland, a frozen autonomous region of Denmark with a population of slightly less than 57,000 that just so happens to be rich in rare earth minerals including iron ore, graphite, tungsten, palladium, vanadium, zinc, gold, uranium and copper — about 1.5 million metric tons worth according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

But minerals aren’t the reason Trump wants Greenland. At least not officially. The president has had his sights set on Greenland for a while. The first taste of Trump’s infatuation came in 2019 when he offered to purchase the island, an “absurd discussion,” according to Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

Then, Trump lost the presidential election to Joe Biden a year later, and the Greenland conversation went away.

Since winning reelection in 2024, Trump has been back on the horse, talking very loudly about taking Greenland for, what he says, are national security reasons.

“We are going to do something in Greenland, whether they like it or not, because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor,” Trump told reporters two weeks ago, according to CNN.

Ignore the fact that the U.S. and Russia are already neighbors via Alaska’s proximity to Eastern Russia. The U.S. is already protected by Greenland through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), of which Denmark, and most of Europe, are members, leaving threats from Russia or China through Greenland, no more likely than if the U.S. controlled it.

Signs currently point to no U.S. military intervention in Greenland, that is, if we take Trump at his own word.

“We never ask for anything, and we never get anything,” he said in a speech at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. “We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that. Ok? Now everyone’s saying ‘oh, good.’ That’s probably the biggest statement I made because people thought I would use force. I don’t have to use force, I don’t want to use force, I won’t use force. All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland.”

Trump went on to say: “All we want from Denmark for national and international security and to keep our energetic and dangerous potential enemies at bay is this land on which we’re going to build the greatest golden dome ever built,” referencing his administration’s plan to build an aerial defense system à la the Iron Dome in Israel.

It’s hard to make heads or tales of what’s really going on here, and I do not envy the Danish diplomats who have to deal with this rollercoaster of emotions brought on by our country’s vibe-based foreign policy.

That is the best way an observer probably could describe Trump’s foreign policy — emotional and vibe-based.

Trump has made it clear he feels the Norwegian Nobel Committee, who awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 to María Corina Machado, the prominent leader of the opposition in Venezuela, should have given the award to him.

Though Machado did gift her award to Trump on Jan. 15, Trump has expressed his continued frustration with the Norwegian Nobel Committee, most recently in a message according to “PBS NewsHour,” to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on Sunday.

“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”

Trump also said in an interview with The New York Times that owning Greenland was “psychologically important” to him and when asked by the reporters if there were any limits on his global powers, Trump said: “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

Only time will tell whether this president will oversee the destruction of NATO, nothing at all or some secret third thing. CNN seems to think betting markets are a useful tool for predicting future events, and as of writing, 40% of Kalshi users think that Trump will buy at least a part of Greenland before Jan. 20, 2029.

It’s also likely that this international hubbub is meant to distract from ICE activities at home, including the ICE agent that shot Renée Good in Minneapolis, that have served as catalysts for mass protests in the city. Maybe it’s a distraction from the fact that the Department of Justice has missed the deadline to release all files related to Jeffrey Epstein which may possibly implicate Trump with the notorious pedophile.

Whatever may or may not happen, one thing remains certain: None of this is normal. There are no norms that cannot be broken and there are no lines that cannot be crossed. Trump is pulling the U.S. and the rest of the world into some new order that, so far, is pretty stupid and embarrassing.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!

Eliyahu Gasson can be reached at gassone@duq.edu