Denmark just sold Trump his own alliance and let him call it a conquest.
Trump told the world on Friday what he was buying in Greenland: "permanent control over security, and all other needs," forever. On Tuesday morning at the UN he put his name to a first page "reaffirming the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark" and recognising Greenlanders' "right to self-determination." Frederiksen read those words from the podium beside him. He kept saying his.
Look at what Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark's foreign minister, actually wrote into the deal he negotiated. The United States may "modernize and expand" Pituffik Space Base and open two new defense areas, at Narsarsuaq in the south and Mestersvig on the east coast, home of Denmark's Sirius dog-sled patrol. American aircraft may fly over and land anywhere in Greenland "without restriction except as mutually agreed." Warships get Greenland's waters "as is agreed to by the Parties." Every clause carries the same hinge: agreed. Copenhagen and Nuuk keep a hand on every door, and Trump signed the doors.
Eight months ago Stephen Miller called military force "always an option," and Frederiksen answered that an attack would mean "the end of NATO." Narativ reported both on 7 January. Tuesday she stood next to Trump and said: "It has been difficult. Greenland has been under enormous pressure. People have been afraid."
Then she and Løkke took the fear he made and wrote it into a treaty that runs the other way.
