US President Donald Trump has said he may impose trade tariffs on countries that do not support his plans to take over Greenland.

“I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security,” Mr Trump said at the White House.

  • assembly@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    At this point, it appears that the EU is the last bastion of liberal democracy still standing. The world should probably start to move to the Euro as reserve currency and the basis of trade.

    • YappyMonotheist@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      We’re vassal states, Europe is to America what Switzerland is to Europe: pretty and seemingly clean, but complicit still. If America collapsed, right wing populists would probably take over (as they are already with Meloni for instance, or that German dude that looks like a WoW zombie) and plunge us deeper into war, continuing the culture of murder and pillage that brought Europe its favourable position in the first place. You’d see some race wars (white people Vs everyone, of course), some islamophobic tendencies that end in the death of innocents, etc etc. Idk about you, but I’d rather not live in a continent that is a bitch when powerless and a murderous cunt when powerful, I’d rather live amongst righteous folk. 🤷

      • assembly@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Where are the righteous folk though? I mean, who else is left standing? We got Canada and New Zealand but they don’t have enough of a population to really move the needle. The US is heading in the direction it is. Everything in South America is a target of the US so they would have to organize into a union to be enough of a deterrent. I just don’t see anyone else outside the EU being able to pull this off. If there is another alternative I’m on board.

    • red_green_black@slrpnk.net
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      4 months ago

      Wonder how the politicians from Europe’s Colonial Imperialism Era (post-Napoleon to pre-WW1.) would feel Europe gaining back it’s status as world ruler after having it gone for only a century or so.

  • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
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    4 months ago

    American here (not a Trump fan).

    There’s three things we should be looking at IMHO.


    First- Trump is a publicity man, an actor. He understands the camera.

    Think of a magic show. You have the magician and the cute assistant in a swimsuit. So when they set up the trick the assistant is flourishing her hands and dancing over the stage to distract you from noticing that the magician palmed your card instead of shuffling it back into the deck.

    Trump understands this. And he knows how to play both the magician and the assistant.

    So if he says something wild like this, understand he WANTS attention on that statement, which probably means he DOESN’T want attention on something else. Like Epstein. If those files have any kind of actual proof he partook in Epstein’s services, there’s a good chance that an impeachment might actually succeed to conviction. Because it’s easy to ‘stand with your party leader’, it’s a lot harder to say ‘yes I stand by my vote that the guy in the picture with his dick in a 14yo girl should stay President’.

    Point being- whenever Trump says something outrageous like this, your first question should be 'what DOESN’T he want me paying attention to?


    Second- understand that USA literally cannot annex Greenland by force. Greenland is a territory of Denmark, and Denmark is a member of NATO. If the US invades Denmark, all other NATO companies are OBLIGATED to provide military support. So that would basically kick USA out of NATO, and you can bet your bottom dollar that not only NATO but also Russia, China, North Korea, etc would all fall over themselves to ‘help respect and defend the sovereign territory of Denmark from illegal invasion’. That very quickly becomes a ‘US vs Rest Of World’ war and even with our giant military there’s NO chance we win against the entire rest of the planet combined. Plus militarily we would be isolated, ostracized from the world economy.

    Americans understand this. Our government understands this. Congress understands this. Even if Trump does not, Congress would not authorize such a war.

    As for tariffs- Congress is much more hesitant to curtail Trump’s tariff powers, but their tolerance has a limit (somewhere). It’s one thing to enact tariffs ‘to protect American manufacturing’, they’ll generally tolerate a ‘good faith’ effort like that. But when the tariff becomes punitive to countries that aren’t supporting an annexation that obviously isn’t going to happen, I think Congress might step in.


    Third- While this all may well be a distraction or a strategy, it is doing actual harm to our international relations. If I was a citizen of EU, AU, Asia, etc, I would be saying 'the US can no longer be trusted to lead the world economy, the rest of the world needs to find a solution where the US is ‘one among many’ not calling the shots. And a big part of that would likely be a different worldwide reserve currency. Because right now this is like being on a bus where every few minutes the driver jokes about swerving in front of an oncoming semi truck- even if he won’t do it, you still don’t want to be on that bus.


    What this also means is that the next Presidential election is important not just for American internal politics but for determining what our place in the world will be going forward. While Trump is ineligible to be re-elected, I think it’s important that the US send a clear message this isn’t the sort of statesmanship that we want representing us. That DOESN’T mean blindly vote blue. It means vote in primaries, vote for candidates who act like statesmen.

    • ɯᴉuoʇuɐ@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 months ago

      If the US invades Denmark, all other NATO companies are OBLIGATED to provide military support. So that would basically kick USA out of NATO,

      The other countries can simply not oblige (and thus kill NATO). That’s the more realistic option.

      and you can bet your bottom dollar that not only NATO but also Russia, China, North Korea, etc would all fall over themselves to ‘help respect and defend the sovereign territory of Denmark from illegal invasion’.

      Lol no they wouldn’t. Neither would they care about who owns Greenland (except probably Russia), neither would they waste immense amounts of money and manpower to fight the biggest military and economy in the world for no real gain, and neither would 2/3 of the listed countries (Ru, NK) be able to do anything serious against US anyway (outside of suicidally throwing nukes at it).

      • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
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        4 months ago

        The other countries can simply not oblige (and thus kill NATO). That’s the more realistic option.

        I don’t see it.

        Sure, the various NATO countries who aren’t Denmark can simply say ‘sorry man we’re out’ and dissolve NATO. Or just refuse to comply, damn the consequences.
        They won’t though, because in many cases the threat of NATO is the only thing protecting them.
        Look at Eastern Europe on the Russian border- Finland, Estonia, Latvia. Belarus is a RU puppet and Ukraine might lose their war so we can include Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania too. Russia has Navy assets in the Black Sea so you can also consider Bulgaria and Turkey.
        If NATO went away tomorrow, do you really think Russia wouldn’t try to gobble one or two of them up? You really think they wouldn’t succeed in at least one or two cases?

        And what about Canada? They’re a NATO member and they have real military force. Same with UK, Norway, Sweden, Germany.

        Do any of them WANT to go up against USA? Of course not.
        If the US truly went rogue and invaded a sovereign nation, would they do it? Probably, because if they didn’t, there’s no guarantee they wouldn’t be next.

        Lol no they wouldn’t. Neither would they care about who owns Greenland (except probably Russia), neither would they waste immense amounts of money and manpower to fight the biggest military and economy in the world for no real gain, and neither would 2/3 of the listed countries (Ru, NK) be able to do anything serious against US anyway (outside of suicidally throwing nukes at it).

        They DGAF about Greenland. Greenland isn’t worth shit.
        But for any of them to reduce the US’s role in the world economy or worldwide diplomacy, that’s a golden opportunity.
        Thing is they needn’t commit huge resources to the war. Just a small force that would be able to make it hurt for the US, and the real war is fought in the media. It gives them a chance to be the heroes and paint US as the villain.

    • WanderingThoughts@europe.pub
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      4 months ago

      So you’re saying EU needs to threaten with an Epstein Tariff Retaliation Program and keep throwing the name around until he backs off in a weaponized Streisand effect?

      • coredev@programming.dev
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        4 months ago

        Couldn’t they just rename Greenland to Epstein Island? “USA need Epstein Island for our security” would be pretty hard to sell.

        • I_Jedi@lemmy.today
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          4 months ago

          Trump is way ahead of you. I believe he wants to rename Greenland to Red White and Blueland. Europe renaming the island will advance those naming plans.

  • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    And he may put tariffs on you anyway, so that’s a wash and you may as well do what’s right. If your country doesn’t push back, he’ll come for you sooner or later. Mark Carney take note.

    • IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      I’m guessing that reasoning is why he’s been trying to get our economic relationship with China back to what is was before Trump’s first term. It’s a shitty choice to have to make, but when the US is by far your biggest trading partner, you have to diversify where you can.

      • Agrivar@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Is it even that shitty of a choice? I’m just an American who’s never been to China, but right now they really seem to be the better place to live…

        • IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          It’s still the same party in charge that decided to use tanks to run over student protesters. China only seems more stable right now because protesters would have all been rounded up into the re-education camps a long time ago.

        • [object Object]@lemmy.ca
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          4 months ago

          The dictator for life, espionage, and social credit situations are not good.

          But they’re a lot more reasonable than Trump.

  • unmagical@lemmy.ml
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    4 months ago

    Kinda seems that the whole rest of the world should just join BRICS or something. Tariffs ain’t gone mean much if the rest of the world just shrugs and keeps progressing their global economy without you.

    • [object Object]@lemmy.ca
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      4 months ago

      I would rather the countries without concentration camps just work together instead of cozying up to some flavour of fascism and authoritarianism.

      • YappyMonotheist@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        The countries without concentration camps often fully support and back these concentration camps, like the West and America. Come on.

    • xxce2AAb@feddit.dk
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      4 months ago

      Or the EU depending on geography and preference. Either is more desirable regardless.

    • cecilkorik@piefed.ca
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      4 months ago

      BRICS intends to be just as bad if not worse. China and Russia in particular. Their hostility towards the US way of doing things isn’t because they actually think what the US is doing is wrong, it’s because they want to be the ones doing all the bad things the US is currently doing, they feel like the US economic and political dominance is stopping them from being able to do many of these bad things (which is true) and they believe it is their right to do whatever bad things they want to do, which may be true (obviously the US has gotten away with it for decades), but that is still not a point I am willing to concede. Turning to BRICS means conceding that point and letting them do whatever bad things they want to globally. And they will.

      The EU is far from perfect, and they have a lot of work to do, but they seem like the only reasonable economic path forward for anyone that wants to at least try to respect human rights and behave in a civilized manner at this point.

  • niceusername@lemmy.ml
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    4 months ago

    Lol just tariff us then.

    We’ll slap on retaliation tariffs.

    I will pay a lot to be petty and take away what he thinks is his one card.

  • TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    He’s basically admitting that his plans may be foiled if other countries don’t support him.

    And they won’t. Tariffs are a much better alternative than risking world war 3. Also the US is already tariffing the shit out of most of the world’s goods anyway.

  • skozzii@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    I don’t think Trump realizes how petty the rest of the world can get and actively avoid American products for a looong time.

    He has caused generational damage to America.

  • shittydwarf@piefed.social
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    4 months ago

    The only reason Trump is doing this is to get the USA out of NATO for Putin. The reason he works for Putin is because Putin has some very compromising pictures and videos of Trump, involving children and possibly pee

    • Catma@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      At this point i honestly think there is no tape or anything compromising.

      I think at best Putin promised him that he would get richer if he followed his lead. Trump is 100% stuck in an 80’s mentality of money = power = strength = respect. If Putin had any shit on Trump feels like he could have caused even more damage by releasing it the second Biden was sworn in, in 2021.

    • YappyMonotheist@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Why does it have to be Putin? You really think they’re so organized and competent? Do you remember Gorbachev? 😅 The globalists in power in America have interests that align with Russia, and so do many leaders around the world. Capital, besides some old school American warhawks and Zionists, want a multipolar world, peace besides in some areas, a controlled America and even normalisation with Israel (even if they deserve to be sucked down into Hell, lol). I think American leaders despise their people and have no pride whilst authoritarian leaders, as evil as they might be, seem to have a bit more interest in their land’s success, even if it’s just due to their own vanity and history books being nice to them.

  • Splount@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    He’s become like the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland. Everything requires a singular response. “Off with their heads!” It’s like he’s not smart enough or emotionally mature enough to consider another response, let along a more subtle response. It’s like he needs to prove to everyone he is a strongman by yelling at everyone within earshot that he is strong. Methinks he doth protest too much.

    • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      He’s not smart or emotionally mature enough. He literally brags about not growing up past age six.

  • kreskin@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    So every Americans access to capitalism’s goods is all a tool for trump to play his idiotic micropenis games with the world now. Capitalism wasnt great, but is this technically even capitalism anymore?

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    He does know Tariffs can go both ways, right? If you think things are expensive now, just wait until the rest of the world plays the reverse Uno card.