President Trump was less than subtle in his insistence than the United States “will” obtain “Greenland in one way or another, reiterating on Friday that the United States cannot” live without him “.
As he pronounced these words in the oval office, the higher level American political expeditionary force to set foot on the vast territory had already landed to inspect real estate prospects. But they were confined inside the fence of a distant and frozen American air base, the only place where the demonstrators could not appear.
Led by Vice-President JD Vance, American visitors quickly discovered what past administrations learned in the 1860s: weather conditions are as prohibited as politics. When Mr. Vance’s plane landed in the Midi Sun, 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle, there were less 3 degrees outside.
Mr. Vance used a jocular and slightly vulgar epithet to describe the temperature, where he wore jeans and a parka, but no hat or gloves. “No one told me,” he said to the troops of the Pituffik space base when he entered their mess for lunch. The US Space Force Guardians, who directed what was formerly known after the Second World War under the name of Thule Air Force Base, broke out laughing.
But for all humor, the journey was simultaneously a recognition mission and a passive-aggressive recall of Mr. Trump’s determination to carry out his territorial ambitions, whatever the obstacles. As if to get home, Trump told journalists in the oval office on Friday: “We must have Greenland. It’s not a question of” do you think we can do without it “.” We can’t. “
