You are not alone if you are astonished that the United States of America has been at the threshold of war because of Donald Trump’s hurt feelings over not winning the Norway-based Nobel Peace Prize. Trump takes everything personally, which makes you wonder how he has any room in his head for what is best for the nation.
In a text message exchange that Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere initiated to de-escalate the tension caused by Trump’s demand that Greenland — an autonomous territory of Denmark — become part of the United States, Trump showed his real hand.
“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.”
Our NATO allies stood firmly against Trump’s threats — he refused to rule out military action — and Trump again threatened them with crippling tariffs. But they refused to budge. Later last week, at the Davos economic summit in Switzerland, Trump seemed to get the message and explicitly ruled out military force. But he continued his implied threats, saying that if the answer is “no” to his demand to acquire Greenland, “We will remember.”
I knew guys in the old neighborhood who knew how to threaten someone and still maintain deniability. There is an art to the use of coercion, and Trump has mastered it. He also knows that you sometimes have to carry out a threat just to remind people that you are not always bluffing. We see that in the cities where secret police are aggressively rounding up more than just dangerous criminals. ICE agents have been detaining and harassing American citizens and others without regard to the First Amendment or the requirement of warrants.
In America, the Ku Klux Klan wears masks — not the police. But these militarized federal agents hide their faces. That keeps them officially and personally unaccountable for their actions. If you could at least see their faces, they would be less likely to do something they would be ashamed to have their mothers see them do.
Trump has used coercion effectively to get his way. Some major law firms chose profits over their devotion to justice when Trump threatened to shut them out of government business if they refused to bend a knee to his demands. Some of our universities have broken with their social and educational missions for fear of Trump’s wrath. And some major media outlets have cowered at Trump’s threats of lawsuits or license revocation and shrunk away from the truth.
But in the great American tradition of civil disobedience and freedom of speech, a growing number of our fellow citizens are pushing back. Those law firms that caved have lost their reputations within the legal community. And viewers and readers are finding news sources they trust.
Where there are ICE abuses, average Americans are confronting federal agents in the streets and challenging them to follow the law. As for Greenland’s sovereignty, nine Republican senators spoke against Trump’s tactics early on, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers visited Denmark to reaffirm support for our NATO ally.
You may be happy with Trump’s approach. But if you are one of the growing number of Americans who have had enough, look at this as an opportunity to stand up for your rights. And remember the advice we got from Ronald Reagan: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.”
