[IntPol] Davos Trump's musings...

[Starfox]

Yep, musings, because one cannot call what he said in the Davos Economic Forum, on January 21, in front of the heads of states and representatives of many European countries anything else but musings. He was almost talking to himself, forgetting that he was representing America... forgetting a lot of things even, like the name of Greenland.

I have been a bit suspicious about Donald's mental state since the speech he gave for his one year in office. But I think his demonstration at Davos is indicative of something far more serious than just a guy wanting to control whatever he can grab. It's indicative of a guy who's losing it big time. His cognitive functions are seriously impaired.

You don't go and call Greenland Iceland four times in a row without having a serious mental problem. Greenland is supposed to be all he cares about these days, but he still confused it with Iceland four times (leaving his audience dumbfounded in a "what the hell is he talking about now?" way)?!! Do leaders make mistakes? Absolutely, it's part of the job, a country leader can easily become overworked and let loose some idiocy from time to time, during a public speech, but they generally rectify it immediately with a smile. For example a normal guy could have said "Oops, did I really call Greenland Iceland? No, don't worry guys, I don't want to invade Iceland... yet, haha". But no, there was not rectification, no apologies, no attempt at humor. In fact he seemed a gazillion miles away to realize his mistake.

Davos was a whole performance. Let me quote some of this brilliant piece of international diplomacy:

...and then, after the war [WW2] -- which we won, we won it big; without us, you'd all be speaking German and a little Japanese, perhaps -- and after the war we gave Greenland back... to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that, but we did it, but we gave it back, but how ungrateful are they now.

Was he even aware that he was addressing directly the leaderships of European nations, including Germany and the UK? not some picnic assembly of his MAGA supporters? Denmark should be grateful that the USA gave back a land that was legally part of their Kingdom? They should have grovelled at USA feet and cried "Oh, thank you, thank you for not annexing us"? Because if America had kept Greenland back then, this is what it would have been, the annexation of an allied territory, same as what he wants to do now. And you can imagine that after what happened with the Nazi, the world would have been absolutely thrilled to see that.

And the UK should be grateful to not speak German, doesn't matter if the US entered the war 2 years after everyone and if the UK held the front alone with the remnants of allies salvaged from other European countries, during this time. Doesn't matter if on D-Day two beaches were attacked by Americans, Two by the British, and one by Canadians. And I suppose that the Germans should be grateful to have WW2 thrown in their face... again, while they have make every decent effort, more than any other nation, to condemn the Nazi, fascism, and pledged never to forget what happened so it can't happen again.

Trump, you are the only disgrace here, no one else. And for a US president, your lack of historical knowledge is properly appalling.

If we were counting like him, I suppose France should pump up the volume: "Hey, you know this little thing between 1778 and 1782 (I'm only stating the years between which France was actively involved, not the full event) that you managed to win thanks in part to us sending our fleet and our soldiers and our money. Yep the very one that allowed you to call yourself USA. We even gifted you the statue of Liberty to commemorate our friendship born in spilled blood. How about giving us Hawaii in exchange? No? Oh, those Americans, so ungrateful..." But we don't do that because, between friends, helping each other is the only thing that should matter; not insane calculations about who did what and when and who deserves more. Trump has a very crappy way to look at things but it's part of his "ME, ME AND MYSELF" complex. In his mind, America doesn't need allies. Alliances is not what he does, it's what he destroys.

Really, Pershing going to Lafayette's grave in 1917 especially to say "Lafayette, here we are" before engaging US troops in WW1 was just a fluke, right? No American could possibly ever think that alliances matter, right? Oh, look Trump, I think you may have a bunch of very pissed off Republicans on your back not really sharing your ideas, for once. It seems alliances very much matter to them, more than you keeping the office. Imagine that!

...and we haven't gotten anything, except that we pay for NATO and we paid for many years until I came along. We paid for, in my opinion, 100% of NATO 'cause they [other NATO members] weren't paying their bills.

OK, again:

So yeah, NATO members paid in blood. But sure, blood is not $$$ so to Trump it's worthless. And remember, he was a draft dodger because only losers go to die on the front lines an opinion of his he hinted to more than once. Saying things like "I prefer soldiers who fight and win to soldiers who fight and die". Well, you didn't fight in any war Trump, so who cares about your opinion?

Also I wasn't aware that the US was paying for the French military, or any other NATO country's military (the famous 2% of GDP). I'm also not aware that any NATO country is not fulfilling its commitment to funding NATO. They're all up to date, no one is in arrears according to official documentation. At this point, are you really just pulling "facts" out of your bottom hole? Do you even know how NATO works? Or are you just grumpy because all that money doesn't land directly in your own pocket?

And all we're asking for is to get Greenland, including rights, titles and ownership, because you need the ownership to defend it. You can't defend it on a lease.

His turn of phrase is amusing. While 94% of Americans reject the idea of acquiring Greenland by force and most of those 94% would prefer Trump to get busy with fixing America, it's still "WE're asking for". I wonder how many Americans include themselves in this "WE". Apparently Trump thinks he is America now, or that he owns it.

And I wonder what the US was doing during the whole of the Cold War then, since apparently you can't defend something that does not belong to you; how could all those former US presidents get it so wrong? All this time they were contributing to the defense of what they couldn't possibly defend. Bro, I don't even want to know which state your brain is in to get to such conclusions. Also, Greenland is not some kind of reward that you can get for your commitment to NATO (assuming that such a commitment exists -- recent events tend to prove that it doesn't). What are you? A 5 years old asking for a cake because he's been such a good boy? A bit like, I don't know, if you were asking for the Nobel Peace prize? Oh wait, you did.

Number one, it's not defensible that way, legally... totally. And number two, psychologically, who would want to defend a license agreement or a lease?

I don't know... people who don't have shit for brains? Ask any corporate guy about defending license agreements. And it's interesting that you use the word "psychologically" here. For a guy with a brain that is clearly turning into mushroom... Where did you even learn such big words... Did you train for the occasion?

...we never asked for anything, and we never got anything.

Well if you never asked... 🤣 (sorry couldn't resist there.)

And we won't get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable.

Ooh, OK, you got us shaking in our boots there. Time to surrender? Let me think... What about "NO"? Because really, the more plausible scenario if you go there: both Republicans and Democrats in the Congress will move to remove you from office (they're already on their way to do that, as anyway, you show signs that you're unfit to serve), and it will be the last mistake you ever made politically. And two: US soldiers are not going to fight allies they have trained with and fought beside for the past 25 years just because you decide to throw a temper tantrum. They're more likely to go to the Capitol and defend the Congress and the Constitution against you. Just in case you haven't noticed, America is not Nazi Germany yet... even though you're trying very hard to go there.

But I won't do that. Okay, now everyone's saying "Oh, good". It's probably the biggest statement I made because people thought I would use force. I don't have to use force, I don't want to use force, I won't use force.

A) Why even talk about force then? Why keeping the option on the table all those past months? And B) Excuse us if Europe don't take your word for it. Too many lies, Europe became cautious. So I think we're still going to operate under the assumption that you want Greenland... whatever the cost.

So we want a piece of ice for world protection, and they won't give it. We've never asked for anything else [again, who's "WE"?] and we could have kept... [at that point he clearly forgot the name of the place because he stops for a couple of seconds before pursuing]... that piece of land. So they have a choice. You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative, or you can say no, and we will remember.

Well, it was before he started to call Greenland "Iceland" because he thought the name came back to him. "Well, it's full of ice, it's surely Iceland, right?". And "we will remember" is definitely a threat either immediate or for later. It's his way of saying "bad things will happen".

For national and international security, and to keep our very energetic and dangerous potential enemies at bay, [??] is this land on which we're going to build the greatest golden dome ever built. We're building a golden dome that's going to just by its very nature... uh... [golden dome so great that he has troubles even explaining it] going to be defending Canada.

Uh, Okay... I have the suspicion that he really truly thinks that the "golden dome" is a real dome, golden, that is going to be built on Greenland to defend... Canada? Of course "golden dome" is a nickname a bit like "Brilliant Pebbles" (also called Star Wars) in the 1980s, the system of satellites that was supposed to take down Soviet ICBMs with lasers but actually never worked and never even existed except on paper. Golden Dome is an attempt to revive a part of that.

And even if the Golden Dome was a real physical object built on Greenland, How the fuck would it protect Canada? By having all Canadians hop to Greenland and take refuge under the dome? The place would be crowded pretty fast. And with a 5 to 15 minutes warning, nobody would get there anyway.

And it got worse.

Canada gets a lot of freebies from us by the way. They should be grateful also, but they're not. I watched your Prime Minister yesterday, he wasn't so grateful. But they should be grateful to us. Canada lives because of the United States, remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.

Remember what exactly? All the tariffs put on Canada? All the threats, the idea to turn it into the 51st state? Oh don't worry, they remember all that. And by the way, there is this thing called NORAD, the early warning system against missiles, which wouldn't really be any good to the US except for Canada watching the North (from where incoming missiles threats are the most likely to come because it is the shortest way between Russia, China and America).

As for the notion that Canada lives because of the United States... I don't even know what to say. At that point of his speech, I think most in the audience thought they were losing him. Or more precisely "Where did his brain go?"

The United States is treated very unfairly by NATO, I want to tell you that. When you think about it, nobody can dispute it, we give so much and we get so little in return. And I've been a critic of NATO for many years. And yet, I've done more to help NATO than any other president by far, than any other person. You wouldn't have NATO if I didn't get involved in my first term.

Oh, you should go on because a little bit more and you're going to pretend that you are the one who created NATO when you were still a toddler. And what about you constantly going on about rewards you feel you deserve for just doing your job? All the bases the US has in Europe are not enough? Neither is the blood shed in Afghanistan and Irak by your allies? What would really satisfy you... ooh, I know, total and absolute obedience. In that case you can go screw yourself.

I won't cover the whole thing. You can find it on YT. After that point he makes less and less sense and starts again on the "stolen" 2020 elections that, if you can believe it, is the cause for the war in Ukraine, because that guy cannot conceive that not everything in the world is about him and that he's not the center of the universe.

One thing can be said for Trump, he treats US allies equally; he has bad things to say about every single one of them (at least those he can locate on a map, and of which he can remember the names... on good days).