From the front page of the New York Times two days ago. King Canute would be proud. (JF screenshot from the NYT site.)
It’s hard to believe, but it’s only been one week. Just last weekend, Donald Trump announced that the US was now “running” Venezuela, with a notable lack of details on how long, by whom, and toward what end.
Since then, that Venezuelan situation has clarified in one way: According to Trump himself, it was always and only about the oil.1 Oil executives themselves are far less rah-rah about this prospect. Meanwhile everything else about US plans, goals, and obligations in Venezuela grows murkier by the day.
In this same week, we face the quickening onrush of other cruel and chaotic news. ICE’s escalating and lethal war against “blue state” America, whose focus has moved from California to Illinois to Oregon and now Minnesota. Meanwhile, Trump schmoozes in the Oval Office for hours with New York Times reporters, making “I’m the king of the world!” assertions like those shown on the NYT’s front page two days ago. Still a guy from Queens, with a chip on his shoulder, lapping up respect from the august Times.2 In this same week we’ve had Trump’s revived dream of taking control of Greenland—and perhaps Mexico too.
You know all this. For each item I’ve mentioned, we know there could be fifty more illustrations. Here’s my subject for now: How we, as citizens and institutions, face the reality that a president is losing his mind, and can no longer distinguish between what he says and what is real.
Let’s start with a specific and build to the general point.
Competition for the “stupidest ever” Trump proposal is stiff. He has suggested dropping nuclear bombs into hurricanes. Drinking bleach to prevent Covid. Seeming to confuse “political asylum” with “insane asylums.” Last year he ordered reservoirs drained in northern California, apparently thinking that water from the north would naturally flow “down” to fight fires in the south, even though a big mountain range is in the way.
Still I think the Greenland offensive qualifies as his very stupidest idea, for three reasons.
a) The premises. There’s mounting evidence that Trump really thinks the world’s largest island is much, much bigger than it is, and therefore more glorious for him to acquire.
This is the curse of the Mercator Projection. In grade school most Americans have seen maps on which Greenland looks enormous. It looks like a continent-scale island, as in the white area at the top of this “Mercator Projection” map.
On traditional “Mercator Projection” maps like those Donald Trump would have grown up with, Greenland is the huge mass at top. That’s due to the distortions of representing a sphere on a flat plane. In reality, Greenland is about as big as the US between the Mississippi and the Rockies, as shown in the pink image, most it covered with mile-thick ice. It’s a little smaller than Algeria, as shown in red. (JF map via TheTrueSize.com.)
But if you’ve finished high school or looked at a globe, you know why the Mercator Projection is misleading. It exaggerates the size of anything near the North and South Poles, and shrinks the size of anything near the Equator. On a Mercator Projection, Greenland looks roughly as large as all of Africa, which in reality is about 15 times bigger.
Donald Trump may “know” that Greenland is not enormous. But he talks and acts like a person who thinks it is.
b) The consequences. Greenland is a self-governing part of Denmark. Denmark is part of NATO—and even among NATO members, one that has been notably cooperative and supportive of the United States. An attack by one NATO member on another would likely shatter it for good.
c) The pointlessness. This is where we go from “dangerous,” to “idiotic.” The drive to take over Greenland is crazy because of this simple fact:
Everything the US could possibly gain by “owning” Greenland, it can already get, with no friction, just through its existing agreements with Denmark.
Aircraft bases? The US military already has treaty and agreement rights to more locations in Greenland than it uses.
Naval bases? Ditto. Same for surveillance of all sorts.
Chinese and Russian ships in the vicinity? They’re mainly in other oceans—and anyway, US alliances with Denmark and other NATO partners are the main way to keep watch. Trump, Rubio, and Hegseth claim that the Greenlandic waters are teeming with enemy ships. Authorities in the area say that is flat-out false.
The famed “rare earth” resources? These minerals are sold on the global market. Much like oil. If Denmark or the Greenlandic government were ever to develop those mines, and build roads from the mines to ports, US purchasers could make deals with them. “Rare earth” supply chains from China are one thing. Those run by a NATO ally are something else—at least as long as NATO is intact.
And beyond all this is the reality that it’s far, far easier for the US to let someone else run Greenland, rather than taking on those complications ourselves.
Last spring, Deb and I were in Greenland for about a week.
Everything about local life there is complex and intertwined with Denmark. In history. Through generations of inter-marriage. Via education for Greenlandic students at Danish universities. In subsidies for health, education, and welfare for Greenland’s 56,000+ people. In politics, concerning Greenland’s indigenous autonomy.
Why on Earth would the US want to become responsible for any of this—either by purchase, or by force? When it can already get what it wants or “needs,” through existing treaties or the open market?
No sane American leader would ever think: Let’s offend or attack an ally, to get something we already have, and take on extra burdens we don’t want.
But that is what our Mad King and his toadies are proposing. No person who talks about this as a “reasonable” possibility should be listened to on any other topic.
It’s worth distinguishing the categories of people sticking with Trump. I think of them as: the liars, the believers and manipulators, and then Trump himself. There’s overlap, but I think of:
The liars. Some people in Trump world are clearly aware that they’re lying to stay in his favor—but keep on lying, because they’re subservient. This list has to start with JD Vance and two Floridians, Marco Rubio and Pam Bondi.
-We know this about Vance, because before he bowed down to Trump he called him “America’s Hitler.”
-We know this about Rubio, because before he lost to Trump in the primaries he said Trump was a “con man,” and “if he hadn’t inherited $200 million, he’d be selling watches in Manhattan.”
-We know this about Bondi, because the main theme of her testimony when up for confirmation as Attorney General was that she’d be diligent in keeping the DOJ out of politics. And then she brought bogus charges against James Comey, Letitia James, and just now Jerome Powell.
-We know that the list also includes the likes of Scott Bessent and Kevin Hassett, because they used to be considered “real” figures in economics and finance. Now they’re mouthpieces for claims they would have ridiculed if not working for Trump.
-We know this about most GOP members of the US Senate, because they criticized Trump before they knuckled under to him. Jared Kushner, and Ivanka? Tim Cook and the rest of the tech leadership?
They all know it about themselves.
The believers and manipulators. In another complicated category are people on the Trump team who have become true believers—plus those who have talked Trump into adopting their own views.
Kristi Noem has made herself a pure Trump creature, from physical appearance and fashion choices to bellicose rhetoric. Stephen Miller has made Trump a vehicle for his anti-“foreigner” views. Elon Musk, RFK Jr., Russell Vought, and others have shown ways to turn Trump into a vehicle for their personal interests or long-held causes.
Trump himself—liar, believer, bullshitter, or all at once? Can he “actually” believe the things he says all day? That tariffs move prices down, rather than up? That his popularity is going up, rather than down? That he won last time in a “landslide,” rather than a historically tiny margin? That he deserves a place on Mount Rushmore, or the Nobel Peace Prize platform, rather than answering Jack Smith’s criminal charges in court?
I’ve resigned myself to accepting that this is the 2020s version of “Schrödinger’s cat.” We can’t know whether he’s “lying,” “deluded,” trying to make something true by repeating it, or simply “bullshitting” in Harry Frankfurt’s classic definition. (In which the bullshitter just doesn’t care.)
Whatever the case, it’s our reality. It’s what he says, and does. Which brings us to what’s next.
In broad strokes, I think of four categories of armed forces within the US: