Trump’s Greenland threat exposes a new era of American empire-building

Trump’s renewed threats reveal a shift from capitalism to mercantilist power politics — and Europe is dangerously unprepared

Taoiseach Micheál Martin and US president Donald Trump during the St Patrick's Day reception in the White House last year: Not being part of Nato, Ireland is even more vulnerable than Greenland.

According to Article II, Section 2, Clause I of the American Constitution, President Donald Trump is "Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States". According to the rest of the world, he is Bullshitter-in-Chief. 

For many years, Trump has entertained some of the most ridiculous, abstruse, mind-boggling claims about a range of issues, from climate change to cures for covid-19. He has been ridiculed, derided, mocked and scorned for making statements that defy both common sense and scientific research. And yet, occasionally, even Donald Trump tells the truth.