Insane Impulse Control Issues

We replaced a President with dementia with a President who has developed some level of insanity over Greenland. One of the most endearing quirks of Donald Trump is also the most bothersome — he has no impulse control.

Remember the old experiment about the kid confronted with the marshmallow? If he waited, he’d get a second marshmallow. But some kids immediately scarfed down the first marshmallow and could not wait. Donald Trump would be the kid who scarfed down the first marshmallow immediately and then threatened to launch a nuclear missile at you if he didn’t get the second one.

He simply has no impulse control. It leads him to telling Billy Bush he could grab women, and leads him to being unable to let go of the issue of Greenland. It is some psychological obsession.

The situation has deteriorated so much with our European allies that the Norwegian Prime Minister, in frustration, leaked his text exchange with President Trump over the matter from Sunday. It cannot be stated enough that when an allied world leader leaks his text exchange with the President of the United States, the situation has descended into chaos.

And there is no Trump Derangement Syndrome here except from his most ardent supporters who feel compelled to justify, explain, and defend every single thing Trump does, no matter how crazy. You can read the texts for yourself. It’s the ramblings of an obsessive eighty-year-old who just cannot let something go.

From the Norwegian Prime Minister to the President, on behalf of both the Prime Minister and the President of Norway, sent at 3:48 p.m. on Sunday:

Dear Mr President, dear Donald – on the contact across the Atlantic – on Greenland, Gaza, Ukraine – and your tariff announcement yesterday. You know our position on these issues. But we believe we all should work to take this down and de-escalate – so much is happening around us where we need to stand together. We are proposing a call with you later today – with both of us or separately – give us a hint of what you prefer! Best – Alex and Jonas

From Donald Trump to the Norwegian Prime Minister, sent roughly 30 minutes later:

Dear Jonas: 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. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT

This really is nuts. It’s in writing. It’s Donald Trump at his worst. It is belittling jackassery to a friend and ally. It is unbecoming of the President of the United States. But some will undoubtedly defend it, dismiss it, or try to excuse it all away. By the way, the Norwegian government does not issue the Nobel Peace Prize.

The crazy thing here is that I agree with Donald Trump about the strategic importance of Greenland. But this is counterproductive to accomplishing the security goal he wants. The Europeans cannot now be seen to be bullied into giving up 840,000 square miles of territory to an unhinged and obsessive eighty-year-old. The Europeans are rallying to keep Ukraine’s 233,062 square miles out of Russian hands. They don’t want to give up Greenland either.

But here’s what you really need to know.

The President’s obsession is about both legacy and impulse. He wants to expand the territory of the United States. It has been widely reported that Donald Trump is a big fan of William McKinley, who used tariffs as a trade and revenue tool and who expanded the territory of the United States. Trump wants a legacy.

He also, correctly, sees Greenland as a legitimate security interest, though he has humorously invited Vladimir Putin to a seat at the table for reconstructing Gaza, even as he claims, to the Europeans, that Russia is a threat to the United States.

Around the President is a group of deeply isolationist people. They want to break up NATO. They want to retreat from the world. They want American military personnel out of Europe. They want to build a great wall of the Western Hemisphere, treating everything from Canada to Argentina as within our control, and leave the rest of the world to itself.

Some of you will wonder why others in the White House do not intervene to move the President’s focus elsewhere. This is why. Many of these isolationists come from the Vice President’s team and are surrounding the President. In both the first Trump Administration and now, they have worked to poison the American relationship with the Europeans. Tucker Carlson has savaged NATO and praised Russia. He met with the President the other day.

Trump’s obsession with Greenland risks driving the Europeans away from the United States and perhaps even into the arms of China, as Canada and Mexico are moving. That would break up NATO, have Europeans demand we get our troops out of Europe, and isolate the United States from our allies and the world.

Those around the President find this festering obsession useful, and the Republicans in Congress are too scared to do anything about it.

The real danger here for the GOP is very simple. They are alienating our European allies, with many of you, perhaps, already convinced they are worthless, thanks to a multi-year systematic campaign to poison us on social media with European elite excesses. They have alienated Canada. They have alienated Mexico. And they have also pissed off Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve.

We’re at the point where the Norwegian Prime Minister is fine publicly releasing Trump’s crazy text message. It won’t take much more for the Europeans to decide to embrace the suck, head into a trade war, and hope to provoke economic problems for the United States to harm the GOP in the midterms. And good luck getting Jerome Powell and the Fed to respond to help the economy.

The people around the President have decided alienation is a strategy, and they are alienating the President from his friends, his allies, and a chunk of his 2024 voters. Good luck come November if this persists.

Again, the behavior of the President of the United States towards our European allies and Greenland is beneath the dignity of the Presidency and is shameful. It also comes at a time when the GOP has the opportunity to be on offense against the excesses of the Left as they invade churches and attack ICE. It is a great distraction that harms the interests of the party headed into the midterm elections.