Trump's Davos debacle marked a new low.
I had other plans for this newsletter and have been
primarily personally concerned about the increasingly
terrifying scenes on the streets of my city, but the president’s
showing in Switzerland was so shabby that I feel compelled to share some
thoughts about it.
First of all, despite what cable news
chyrons would have you believe, Trump’s screed was chillingly aggressive.
He began the Greenland part of it with a thinly veiled threat against NATO,
claiming his recent coup in Venezuela proves his regime is a “much greater
power than people even understand.” He contrasted his purported strength with
European weakness.
Trump then channeled Hitler during the Sudetenland crisis,
demanding “immediate negotiations to discuss the acquisition of Greenland by
the United States" — or else.
“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. Okay?"
Life comes at you fast: With financial markets tanking and
European nations talking seriously about economic retaliation, Trump shortly
after his speech pulled a TACO, posting on Truth Social about a vague
“framework of a future deal” involving NATO and Greenland. But during a
subsequent interview with CNBC, Trump was unwilling and/or unable to provide
any details, instead characterizing the framework (which sure sounds like the
status quo) as “a concept of a deal.”
Alas, NATO Secretary Mark Rutte confirmed later
on Fox News that the status of Greenland wasn’t even discussed as part of
Trump’s “framework.” The “deal” appears to be about as meaningful as a degree
from Trump University, but it’s at least better than blowing up NATO for no
reason.
Complete insanity
Make no mistake, Trump’s line about “unstoppable excessive
force” was a threat, and the rest of what he said was meant to provide
plausible deniability. He employed a similar choose-your-own-adventure
rhetorical strategy on January 6 when he mentioned “fight” or “fighting” more than
20 times during a pre-insurrection speech in which he also included a
few mentions of peace.
As if the sabre-rattling toward NATO and Greenland wasn’t
enough, Trump also sneered at Canada. One day after Prime Minster Carney
delivered a
historic speech at Davos essentially announcing the demise of Pax
Americana because of Trump’s malevolent erraticness, Trump huffed that
Carney “wasn’t so grateful” for all America has done for his country and said,
“Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, next time you
make your statements.”
Perhaps just as disturbing as Trump’s aggression is his
obviously disordered state of mind. He made up that
“we have new steel plants being built all over the country,” claimed that
“I haven’t been able to find any wind farms in China” (the country in fact
operates some of the largest ones in the world), and vowed that
there will soon be prosecutions over his 2020 election loss, which he
delusionally claimed was “rigged. Everybody now knows that. They found out.”
Trump went on to take credit for ending conflicts in
countries he seemed to be unfamiliar with, saying “I settled eight other wars”
including one in “Aber-baijan.”
Perhaps most bizarrely, Trump repeatedly confused the ally
he wants to annex with another country entirely, saying “Iceland” when he meant
to refer to Greenland — though it can’t be ruled out at this point that he
wants to conquer both.
In a sign of the Trump regime’s Orwellianism, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to Trump’s confusion by attacking a reporter who pointed it out, tweeting that “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.”
If all this recklessness and senility isn’t enough for you,
Trump also offered up some uncut racism. He opened his speech by lamenting that
“certain places in Europe are not even recognizable anymore” in “a very
negative way.” Less subtly, he said later of Somalis that “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?”
It’s a sign of the sickness of American society that gutter bigotry of that sort from the president no longer seems to even register as a blip in the mainstream news cycle.
“Sometimes you need a dictator”
Reflecting on his speech during another Davos event a few
hours later, Trump lied that “we got great reviews” before adding some
authoritarian bluster.
“Usually they say, 'he's a horrible dictator-type person.'
But sometimes you need a dictator."
Put it all together and what we have here is of an out of
control wannabe autocrat who’s cognitively impaired, openly racist, and more
eager than ever to use force against his perceived foes both at home and
abroad. It’s complete madness that this guy has the nuke codes and yet, with
the exception of people like Mark Carney, too few leaders are willing to
grapple with it.
Thom Tillis, a retiring senator who’s career was ended by
Trump and who presumably would be one of the Senate Republicans most open to
removing him from office, went as far as to admit during an interview at Davos
that he wouldn’t view a military invasion of Greenland as grounds for
impeachment because he’d prefer to “go for a war powers resolution,” as though
another law would mean anything.
At campaign rallies throughout his political career, Trump
has regularly read “The Snake,” a poem about people being taken advantage of
because of their credulity.
“‘Oh shut up, silly woman,’ said the reptile with a grin,
‘You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in,” it goes.
America knew — or should have known — that Trump was a snake
before voters committed the world historical blunder of letting him into the
White House for a second time. But that’s water under the bridge. Now we have
to hope we’re able to survive the venom and endure the unending global
humiliation.
That Trump backed down hours after his Davos speech is a
promising sign that financial markets and diplomatic pressure (not to mention
the grassroots organizing that’s taking place in the occupied Twin Cities) can
still provide something of a check on his desire to carve up the world between
strongmen like himself, Putin, and President Xi. But one year in, he and his
regime are getting worse.
That’s evident in the streets of Minneapolis, the oil fields of Venezuela, and yesterday on that stage in Davos, which will go down as the site of one of if not the most pathetic presidential speech in history — so far.
