Notably, the official reason for the cancellation is nearly as saturated in narcissism and megalomania as the “less” flattering Obama-oriented explanation is: Trump is either angry that Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is not taking his suggestion seriously, or he’s embarrassed by it — or both.
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Indeed, The Post reports that officials had discussed offering Denmark an arrangement in which the United States takes over its annual subsidies to Greenland, apparently because of wariness of Chinese and Russian expansion in the Arctic.
But even if this is so, Denmark and Greenland have declared they’re not interested in Trump’s idea, and Trump’s decision to cancel the trip on this ostensible basis is not rooted in any discernible sense of how this might be in our national interest.
Leading figures in Denmark are pointing out that Trump’s conduct will complicate relations and make coordination on all manner of issues — from climate change to the Mideast — more difficult. There’s zero indication that Trump gave any thought to such consequences.
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Trump regularly bases major policy decisions on a zeal to undo whatever Obama did — as if blotting out the Obama presidency is a measure of his own success — even as Trump and his propagandists regularly go to extraordinary lengths to create the cult-like illusion that he’s loved everywhere.
This includes claiming that polls showing his deep unpopularity are media fabrications and regularly inflating and obsessing over crowd sizes. Trump’s hypersensitivity to how he’s received extends abroad, too: After his trip to London, Trump claimed that large protests there simply never happened.
So it’s at least plausible that one of Trump’s considerations in canceling the Denmark trip was Obama’s planned visit. Which brings us to an interesting tension in Trump’s approach to all these matters.
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This is no longer funny. Danish troops fought alongside the US in Afghanistan and Iraq. 50 Danes died. The president dishonors the alliance and their sacrifice. On the same day he sought to appease Putin by supporting his return to the G8. — Tom Wright (@thomaswright08) August 21, 2019
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Indeed, even if Obama has nothing to do with this decision, this tension is everywhere: Trump outwardly appears to welcome our allies’ contempt, while simultaneously being infuriated when it embarrasses him, particularly in contrast with treatment of Obama.
In the end, whether Trump’s rationale for the nixed trip is fear of Obama, or rage at his Greenland fiasco, or a desire to sow international disruption, at the core of Trump’s decision-making, moral emptiness and megalomania and total lack of concern for the national interest are all that’s left.
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