The Great White Dope went to Davos and, as usual, made a fool of himself. In the process he also embarrassed the majority of Americans – those who think rationally. Trump rambled hither and thither for 72 minutes, mostly irrelevant or incoherent, with insults, misrepresentations, and outright lies, sprinkled with surreal imagined conversations with world leaders.
A rambling performance at Davos
His diminished capacity was on full display – he called Greenland “a large piece of ice.” Then he confused himself (it’s happening more often with each passing day) and mistakenly referred to it as Iceland (a smaller piece of ice, not part of Denmark). Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump didn’t mix up the two; he knew exactly what he was saying: “His written remarks referred to Greenland as a ‘piece of ice’ because that’s what it is. You’re the only one mixing anything up here.” In fact, he said “Iceland” when he meant Greenland four times – a quadruple ‘oops’.
Confusion, arithmetic and reality
The Great White Dope, who claims to be a stable genius, has a problem with primary school arithmetic. He said: “Under my most-favoured nation policy for drug prices, the cost of prescription drugs is coming down by up to 90%, depending on the way you calculate. You could also say 500%, 600%, 700%, 800%.” The average Year 6 pupil knows the lowest reduction of anything is 100%, which equals zero; there is no such thing as a 500% reduction – except for the Great White Dope.
Bigotry and baseless claims
Worse still was the bigotry. In the past Trump has labelled Somalis (who he calls “Somalians”) “garbage”. At Davos, he repeated the largely debunked accusation that Somalis engage in fraud schemes. “We’re cracking down on more than $19bn in fraud that was stolen by Somalian bandits. Can you believe that Somalia – they turned out to be higher IQ than we thought. I always say these are low-IQ people. How did they go into Minnesota and steal all that money?” Does he admire high-IQ fraudsters who can steal $19bn? (His estimated worth is only $6.8bn.)
Mark Carney’s speech: a stark contrast
In contrast to Trump’s hour and 12 minutes of blither-blather, the 13-minute speech of Canadian prime minister Mark Carney made the day before, laid it out straight.
“It seems that every day we’re reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry – that the rules-based order is fading, that the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must … there is a strong tendency for countries to go along, get along, to accommodate, to avoid trouble, to hope that compliance will buy safety.”
“… We participated in the rituals, and we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality.”
“This bargain no longer works.”
“Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.”
“You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination.”
“The question for middle powers like Canada is not whether to adapt to the new reality – we must.”
“Our view is the middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”
I’ve quoted Carney at length, but better still would be to read the whole speech. He doesn’t mess around. By “middle powers”, I think he means countries below the “great powers” of the US, China, and Russia, and maybe Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan and South Korea. Middle powers probably include: Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the EU, Nordic states, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Thailand, South Africa, Egypt, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. The World Bank groups 109 countries as “middle-income.”
When a cold ‘block of ice’ is the hot potato
The main takeaway from Trump’s way-too-long yippity-yap at Davos came when he said: “Greenland is a vast, almost entirely uninhabited and undeveloped territory that’s sitting undefended in a key strategic location between the United States, Russia and China. It’s exactly where it is, right smack in the middle. It wasn’t important, nearly, when we gave it back. We need it for strategic national security and international security.
“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. That’s probably the biggest statement, 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.”
I can imagine a collective sigh of relief: Thank goodness – Trump won’t do to Greenland what he did to Venezuela … what he did to Nigeria … what he did to Iran. Or what he’s threatened to do with Gaza, Panama, Cuba, or neighbours Mexico and Canada. How many times has Trump not done what he said he’d do? The best example is his ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs, which earned him the sobriquet TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out). Conversely, how many times has he done what he said he wouldn’t do, such as swearing he would not cut Medicaid? Trump changes his mind about as often as he changes his socks.
Is Trump aware of the law?
But not to worry. Trump is working on the concept of a framework of a plan for Greenland. The Great White Dope doesn’t seem to be aware of the 1951 Greenland Defense Agreement between the US and Denmark.
Article II, 4b: “The Government of the United States of America, without compensation to the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark, may use such defense area in cooperation with the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark for the defense of Greenland and the rest of the North Atlantic Treaty area, and may construct such facilities and undertake such activities therein as will not impede the activities of the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark in such area.”
Article IV: “In connection with activities for the defense of Greenland and the rest of the North Atlantic Treaty area, the defense areas will, so far as practicable, be made available to vessels and aircraft belonging to other Governments parties to the North Atlantic Treaty and to the armed forces of such Governments.”
There are 14 articles, but you get the drift. This agreement is still in effect. If, as Trump stated at Davos, “We need it for strategic national security and international security”, that’s not a problem. No need for a concept of a plan. But the 1951 agreement does not mention minerals. Ah, there’s the rub. Venezuela = oil; Greenland = minerals.
Understanding the Trump pattern
It’s a mistake to think or write about Trump the way you think or write about ‘normal’ people. I’m not a psychologist, but Trump ticks all the boxes used to describe a sociopath. And among the strongest characteristics of a sociopath are pathological lying and extreme narcissism. Please keep in mind when thinking or writing about Trump, it’s always about ME – all the time.
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