“Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.” — text from President Trump to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on Jan. 18 at 4:15 p.m.
Fact Check: Norway does not control the decisions of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which is an independent body. The committee’s decisions are separate from Norwegian foreign policy. Also, Donald Trump has not “…stopped 8 Wars PLUS…” Israel continues to attack Hamas, fighting continues between Thailand and Cambodia and between Congolese forces and Rwanda-backed rebels.
Donald Trump claims that the U.S. must acquire Greenland, citing U.S. national security interests. On Jan. 16, Trump posted, “The United States needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security…It is vital for the Golden Dome that we are building. NATO should be leading the way for us to get it. IF WE DON’T, RUSSIA OR CHINA WILL, AND THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!” This fearmongering of China and Russophobia is not new. It has been the basis of American foreign policy for several years.
One of the most dominant forces in focusing U.S. policy on China and the former Soviet Union was President Carter’s National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski. He played a pivotal role in the careers of Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Hillary Clinton. He played an intellectually important role in shaping the worldview of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. His doctrine on U.S. foreign policy influenced many others, including President Barack Obama. Brzezinski’s worldview and approach to policy dominates the policy landscape even today.
In his 1997 book “The Grand Chessboard,” Brzezinski writes, “For the first time ever, a non-Eurasian power has emerged…The last decade of the twentieth century has witnessed a tectonic shift in world affairs…The defeat and collapse of the Soviet Union was the final step in the rapid ascendance of a Western Hemisphere power, the United States, as the sole and, indeed, the first truly global power…it is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges, capable of dominating Eurasia and thus also of challenging America.” This remains the dominant and controlling focus of American foreign policy to this day.
In today’s context, the focus is on preventing China and/or Russia from challenging the U.S. as the sole unipolar hegemon. The problem confronting those Brzezinski acolytes and the reality that they refuse to accept is that change is occurring and can’t be stopped. The time is passing from the unipolar to a multipolar dynamic. They are trying to defy the realities of history. All empires run their course, usually due to advancements in technology that they fail to adapt to and military overreach. This is at the crux of Trump’s insane obsession with and threats to invade or annex Greenland.
Trump’s visions of grandeur in the Western Hemisphere have him unilaterally proclaiming that the Gulf of Mexico is now to be called the Gulf of America, annexing Greenland (the self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark) and threatening to make the sovereign nation of Canada the 51st state of the United States. When viewing a map, one must ask, is trying to squeeze Canada Trump’s real objective in acquiring Greenland?
I believe that Trump is trying to leave his mark on the world by further expanding American territory as President Thomas Jefferson did in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase and as President Andrew Johnson did in 1867 with the purchase of Alaska. The difference is that both of those transactions had willing sellers and willing buyers. French President Napoleon Bonaparte sold Louisiana to the U.S. in 1803 to offset France’s losses during the Haitian Revolution and to raise money for a pending war with Britain. Russia sold Alaska to the U.S. in 1867 after experiencing financial struggles after the Crimean War.
The world is now aghast at Trump’s threats to attack Greenland. The United States of America, a NATO member, is threatening to invade another NATO member. Such an invasion would trigger an Article 5 response by the other NATO member countries against the U.S. in support of Greenland. Trump is threatening to impose an additional 10% tariff on the eight European countries that are opposing American control of Greenland. He has threatened France with a 200% tariff on French wine, which for all intents and purposes will be an embargo, and he wants to charge countries $1 billion to join his grift in Palestine called the “Board of Peace.” Most believe the pending U.S.-EU trade agreement is now DOA.
An obviously nervous and sometimes incoherent Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, tried to defend Trump’s proposed tariffs on “Meet the Press” by stating that the goal is to avoid a future national emergency. Bessent said, “The national emergency is avoiding a national emergency.” What?
From the broader ideological perspective, Trump’s extrajudicial murders in the Caribbean, the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife and threatening Greenland, Iran and Cuba are just more examples of American imperialism. In his 1915 Atlantic article entitled, “The African Roots of War,” W.E.B. Du Bois provided an analysis of the rise of imperialism and the outbreak of World War I. Imperialism being defined as the maintaining and extending of power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power (diplomatic power and cultural imperialism). The world saw a similar attempt at imperialism being deployed leading into the beginning of World War II. Trump appears to be desperately imposing imperialism and trying to start World War III.
Du Bois saw imperialism as deeply linked to racism, capitalism, and the subjugation of darker peoples. He saw it as a global system where powerful nations exploited colonies for resources, thereby undermining democracy both abroad and at home. Just as Du Bois warned us about racism, capitalism and subjugation, Dr. King warned us about the Three Evils of Society, the “triple-prong sickness that has been lurking within our body politic from its very beginning…the sickness of racism, excessive materialism and militarism.”
Will this attempt at imperialist expansion, ego and the failure to acknowledge that the empire is waning become Trump’s Waterloo? Will this quest to conquer Greenland, Venezuela and possibly Canada, lead the U.S. to the definitive defeat that ends these ambitions? The downfall begins with a mistaken belief that because Trump’s America is exerting control over present events, he can also control the future. This arrogance demonstrates the failure of learning the lessons of the past. Every empire runs its course and eventually falls into the dustbin of history. But, before it fails, the rhetoric becomes more bellicose, the policies become repressive and the actions become more aggressive and dangerous. The last kicks of a dying mule are the most dangerous.
How do we save ourselves from these imperialists, oligarchs and hegemons? Read, read, read; organize, organize, organize; agitate, agitate, agitate; resist, resist, resist; and pray for rain.
Dr. Wilmer Leon is a nationally broadcast radio talk-show host.