Sometimes it’s hard to separate Donald Trump’s legitimate policy ideas from the statements that he uses to needle his enemies. For every joke about annexing Canada and remark about renaming the Gulf of Mexico, there’s a suggestion to reclaim the Panama Canal or buy Greenland from Denmark.
The move to acquire Greenland makes the most sense of all of those ideas, at least from a strategic point of view, and my friend and colleague Robert Spencer detailed the reasons in something he wrote on Tuesday. He explained:
So America needs Greenland for both national security and economic security. Is there any truth to this? Absolutely. Clingendael Research, a Dutch think tank that produces “state-of-the-art analyses and policy research in international affairs for governments, businesses and NGO's,” reported that “in 2018, the People’s Republic of China published its first Arctic strategy, claiming that the Middle Kingdom is a ‘near-Arctic state.’” It added that “it is quickly becoming clear that China has built a geostrategic presence in the Arctic that is not to be sniggered at. It is already reshaping circumpolar politics in fundamental ways.”
The push for Greenland may be further along than we thought. Donald Trump, Jr. made a trip there earlier this week with some friends to talk to Greenlanders. They received a warm reception.
Greenland loves America and Trump!!! Incredible people with an equally awesome reception. They just want to be able to utilize some of the incredible resources that they have and allow themselves, their country, and their kids to flourish. pic.twitter.com/7TPz0DACKX
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 7, 2025
The thing about Trump is that even though he prioritizes America in his policies, he also understands that a strong America is good for America’s allies as well. Would that include a potential Anglosphere alliance? Daniel Hannan, the Brexit-friendly former member of the European Parliament, suggests that it’s a good idea:
How about we bring together the five great Anglosphere democracies in a diplomatic, military and economic union, including unhindered free trade, free movement of labour and an institutionalised military alliance?
— Daniel Hannan (@DanielJHannan) January 7, 2025
🇦🇺🇨🇦🇳🇿🇬🇧🇺🇸 https://t.co/8Ol659V97T
The Spectator World’s Freddy Gray muses whether Team Trump has designs on such an “Anglo Union.”
“Where does Britain fit into Trump’s new world order?” he writes. “It’s clear that Elon Musk, in his semi-official role as first buddy to the most powerful politician in the world, is conducting his own somewhat quixotic campaign on X to absorb the United Kingdom more fully into America’s orbit. Yesterday he asked, impishly yet earnestly, if America should liberate the United Kingdom from its ‘tyrannical government.’”
Gray continues:
For more than a decade, analysts have been talking about America’s Pacific tilt — the turning of its strategic focus towards China. Team Trump, it seems, has bigger plans, including a scheme to answer China’s rise by creating a US equivalent of Beijing’s “Belt and Road Initiative” through the North Atlantic. That’s why Trump is so exercised about Britain’s disastrous decision to shut down our exploration of North Sea oil. Trump doesn’t want to disband NATO, he wants to make the North Atlantic stronger for the twenty-first century, which is why yesterday he repeated his demand that NATO members spend 5 percent of their budgets on defense.
He sees the European Union’s economic power receding, and wants to refashion and reorient the West towards a new age.
Of course, there’s the matter of Britain’s Labour government, which despite Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s overtures toward the president-elect, stands diametrically opposed to anything MAGA or remotely conservative. That doesn’t mean that rank-and-file Britons aren’t open to the benefit of a second Trump term. As Labour declines in popularity, a rise in more conservative policies might come about in the UK.
“Quite a lot of British people, despairing as we are of our own government, will be wondering if now might be the time to open our minds to the Trump 2.0 global agenda,” Gray writes.
Related: What's Next for Canada After Trudeau's Resignation?
Stranger things have happened lately. After all, who’d have thought that Trump’s reelection would (directly or indirectly) lead to Justin Trudeau resigning in Canada? We’re learning that what’s good for America might be good for the larger English-speaking world, too.
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