For Trump, Greenland is about legacy -- and humiliation

[marmar]

For Trump, Greenland is about legacy — and humiliation
The president has infuriated NATO allies and left Greenland’s foreign minister in tears

By Heather Digby Parton
Columnist
Published January 18, 2026 6:45AM (EST)


(Salon) A few months after the 2020 election, New York Times reporter Peter Baker and his wife, the New Yorker’s Susan Glasser, traveled down to Mar-a-Lago to interview Donald Trump for their book “The Divider.” As Glasser wrote in the New Yorker on Jan. 8, they asked him in passing about his odd desire to take over Greenland, revelations of which had briefly appeared in the press and which they’d also heard about from some of his former staff. Trump told them he’d looked at the map and wondered, “Why don’t we have that?… Look at the size of this, it’s massive, and that should be part of the United States. It’s not different from a real-estate deal. It’s just a little bit larger, to put it mildly.”

....(snip)....

The president apparently got the idea of annexing Greenland from cosmetic heir Ronald Lauder, who seems to have a special interest in mineral deals both there and in Ukraine, and has been pushing Trump on the notion for years. Lauder offered to be a secret envoy to Denmark to try to make the deal. During his first term, Trump even floated a proposal to trade Puerto Rico for Greenland, as if he were playing marbles on the playground. At the time it was just another one of his kooky ideas that went nowhere, largely because the people around him were able to give him another shiny object to chase. But Trump obviously has never forgotten it, and over the past year he has shown a pathological determination to dominate the Western hemisphere, starting with his obsession for turning Canada into the 51st state, his recent incursion into Venezuela and, now, his renewed threats against Greenland, which have ratcheted up in the last few weeks.

....(snip)....

Even though this is yet another looney episode of the Trump show, the consequences could be grave. As the Atlantic’s Tom Nichols wrote, European leaders are taking the president’s threats very seriously, as they should. He is clearly out of control and capable of anything right now, including simply issuing a late-night declaration that he has taken over Greenland and dares Denmark or anyone else to say otherwise. Trump believes he can mold reality to his will, and during his decade spent variously as candidate, president and former president, he has learned that he can get away with anything.

....(snip)....

The president is now in the business of legacy building, which basically means slapping his name on everything in sight. (He told French president Emmanuel Macron on a tour of Mount Vernon that “If [Washington] was smart, he would’ve put his name on it. You’ve got to put your name on stuff or no one remembers you.”) ..................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/01/18/for-trump-greenland-is-about-legacy-and-humiliation/

[BeyondGeography]

1. If Washington was smart, he would have put his name on what...WASHINGTON?

JFC, I think I need to give up.

[surfered]

2. I get it. Seizing Ukraine and attempting to re-establish the great Russian Empire is Putin's legacy.

But Greenland is also another of Trump’s attempts to distract from the Epstein files.