Trump’s Desperate Ploy for Greenland Majorly Backfires

Greenland’s parliamentary election results have thrown a massive wrench in Donald Trump’s fantasies of acquiring the mineral-rich territory.

The center-right, pro-business party Demokraatit won nearly 30 percent of the vote on Tuesday, and the party seemed less than open to Trump’s wild dreams of annexation.

“We don’t want to be Americans. No, we don’t want to be Danes. We want to be Greenlanders. And we want our own independence in the future. And we want to build our own country by ourselves, not with his hope,” party leader Jens-Friederik Nielsen told SkyNews on the eve of the election.

Nielsen has previously called Trump’s unwanted advances onto Greenland “a threat to our political independence.”

In general, Demokraatit prefers a slower route to independence.

“People want change.… We want more business to finance our welfare,” Nielsen said, after the results. “We don’t want independence tomorrow, we want a good foundation.”

This approach, which flies in the face of Trump’s pleas to have Denmark cede the island territory, certainly seems to be gaining popularity among the 56,000 Greenlanders—or at least the ones who voted Tuesday. Demokraatit won only 9 percent of the vote four years ago, according to the Greenlandic Broadcasting Corporation, or KNR TV.

Naleraq, the most aggressively pro-independence party, came in second in the election with almost 25 percent of the vote, up from 12 percent four years ago.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mute Bourup Egede’s left-wing party, Inuit Ataqatigiit, or United Inuit, won only 21 percent of the vote, down from the winningest 36 percent four years ago. Egede had called for the election in February, citing a “serious time” in Greenland.

The election was called amid ongoing threats from Trump that he would levy tariffs to squeeze Denmark into relinquishing the territory, which the president has said has great geopolitical significance to the United States, as well as massive mineral resources.

During an address to Congress last month, Trump claimed to “strongly support” Greenland’s right to self-determination, while also promising that the territory would be his. “We need it really for international world security. And I think we’re going to get it. One way or the other, we’re going to get it,” Trump said.

Trump’s rhetoric about making the territory the “fifty-second state” reportedly electrified the independence movement in Greenland—but evidently not enough to make way for a government that’s willing to play ball with his outrageous demands.

In his congratulation to the Demokraatit Party, Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said that the government would likely continue to to “deal with massive pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump.”

He warned that “it’s not the case that you can just take part of the Danish Realm—the future of Greenland is based on what the Greenlandic people and government want.”

Canada is responding to President Trump’s tariffs against steel and aluminum with $20.7 billion in tariffs against U.S. goods.

A senior Canadian government official told the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity about the plan Wednesday. The move follows Trump claiming victory for getting Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s decision to back off tariffs on electricity the province provides to select U.S. states, after Trump threatened to double the metal tariffs from 25 percent to 50 percent.

Canada’s fresh round of sanctions is in response to Trump’s decision to plow ahead with 25 percent tariffs on metal imports. The country is the largest foreign supplier of steel and aluminum to the U.S.

The European Union also hit back against Trump’s tariffs Wednesday with its own tariffs of $28 billion of U.S. goods including steel and aluminum, textiles, home goods, agricultural products, motorcycles, alcohol, and even jeans, with a focus on Republican-led states. Meanwhile, Trump’s incoherent economic measures are causing consternation within the Republican Party and even among Trump’s own staff.

It seems that the U.S. is waging a full-fledged trade war on multiple fronts with the EU, Mexico, China, and Canada, punctuated by Trump’s wild idea that America’s northern neighbor should be the fifty-first state. Trump claims that this is all necessary to change the U.S. economy, regardless of the negative effects on American consumers. Meanwhile, the stock market has continued to drop as a result of the chaos.

On Tuesday, Trump’s press secretary struggled to explain how tariffs would save the U.S. economy, lashing out at Associated Press reporter Josh Boak, saying it’s “insulting you’re trying to test my knowledge of economics and the decisions this president has made.” As Trump stubbornly continues to double down on tariffs without a real plan, regular people across the world will end up paying higher prices in an unstable economy.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had a mask-off moment while bending over backward to defend President Trump’s destructive tariffs.

“Will these policies be worth it if they lead to a recession? Even a short-term recession?” Nancy Cordes asked Lutnick on CBS Evening News on Tuesday.

“These policies are the most important thing America has ever had,” Lutnick responded dramatically.

“So it is worth it?”

“It is worth it.… The only reason there could possibly be a recession is because of the Biden nonsense that we had to live with. These policies produce revenues.”

“So you’re saying when it looks chaotic and unpredictable from the outside, that there actually is a master plan when it comes to these tariffs?” Cordes asked.

“It is not chaotic. And the only one who thinks it’s chaotic is someone who’s being silly. He said reciprocal tariffs.”

“Nobody expected him to announce 50 percent tariffs this morning!” Cordes pushed back, referencing Trump’s short-lived announcement of tariffs on Canada.

“He needed to break some guy in Ontario who said he was gonna tax American energy 25 percent,” Lutnick declared, referring to Ontario Premier Doug Ford. “The president of the United States and the White House says, ‘Oh no you won’t’ and breaks him. Breaks him. In what? By a tweet and a Truth. And you think that’s chaotic?”

The Trump administration seems determined to throw the country into a recession after its spiteful tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China, and the European Union have caused the stock market to plummet, badly damaging investor confidence.

One Republican lawmaker isn’t backing down to Donald Trump, and it’s sending the president for a spiral.

Representative Thomas Massie was the only House Republican to vote against passing a stopgap measure Tuesday to keep the Trump administration funded through September. The budget bill narrowly passed 217–213, with one Democrat—Representative Jared Golden—voting for the measure.

“So Massie can vote for Debt Ceiling AND Budget to be put into the Trump Administration, making them both the Republicans problem and responsibility, but can’t give us a simple Continuing Resolution vote allowing us the time necessary to come up with a ‘GREAT, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL???’” Trump posted on Truth Social early Wednesday morning. “Republicans only ‘NO’ Vote. GRANDSTANDER!”

The Senate now has until Friday to pass the legislation and avert a government shutdown.

Massie has been Trump’s go-to target this week after the Kentucky Republican made it clear Monday he would vote against the bill. The president took to his usual tactic: threatening party members on social media until they cave.

“Congressman Thomas Massie, of beautiful Kentucky, is an automatic ‘NO’ vote on just about everything, despite the fact that he has always voted for Continuing Resolutions in the past. HE SHOULD BE PRIMARIED, and I will lead the charge against him,” Trump posted on Truth Social Monday night.

But this time, it didn’t work. Instead of cowering to the GOP’s autocrat like many of his colleagues have done before him, Massie responded to the president’s threat with humor and a smile.

“He’s going after Canada and me today. The difference is Canada will eventually cave,” Massie told reporters Tuesday, Politico reported.

In his 15 years in the House, Massie has had no problem breaking from his colleagues. In fact he’s voted against so many bills that it earned him the nickname “Mr. No.”

The 54-year-old is well-versed in responding to Trump’s empty threats too. In 2020, after Massie forced the House to vote in person on a Covid-19 response bill, the president called him a “third-rate-grandstander” and threatened to boot him from the GOP.

But Massie’s still here, and he will no doubt continue to vote according to his own hawkish budgetary principles.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. equated the health risks of getting the measles vaccine to contracting measles itself, in a dangerous escalation of his misinformation campaign amidst massive outbreaks.

Kennedy continued to emphasize that getting vaccinated should be a personal choice during an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity that aired Tuesday night.

“The government shouldn’t force them to do it, there are adverse events from the vaccine, it does cause deaths every year,” Kennedy warned.

“It causes all the illnesses that measles itself causes, encephalitis, and blindness, et cetera,” he continued. “And so people ought to be able to make that choice for themselves. And what we need to do is give them the best information, and encourage them to vaccinate. The vaccine does stop the spread of the disease.”

But Kennedy doesn’t actually think that the vaccine and the illness are the same—he thinks one is better. During the interview, the health secretary claimed that contracting measles was somehow a better method at prevention than getting the vaccine, because it gave people natural immunity.

“It used to be, when I was a kid, that everybody got measles. And the measles gave you lifetime protection against measles infection,” he said. “The vaccine doesn’t do that. The vaccine is effective for some people for life, but for many people it wanes.”

To put it simply, within one interview, Kennedy suggested people might be better off just letting themselves get sick—promoting the spread of the deadly illness that has already infected more than 220 people across several states, resulting in the death of at least one child. Then, the health secretary said that people could get the vaccine, but suggested that it was just as dangerous as contracting a viral illness.

The Centers for Disease Control states that the MMR vaccine is the safest way to protect against measles, and is “much safer than getting measles, mumps, or rubella.” The side effects of the measles vaccine are “usually mild and go away on their own,” according to the CDC.

Encephalitis International, a health non-profit, found that only one to two children in one million who received a measles vaccination developed encephalitis from the vaccination, “which is less than the incidence of all types of encephalitis.”

While measles can cause childhood blindness, the CDC does not consider blindness as a possible side effect of MMR.

Throughout the current outbreak, Kennedy has continually downplayed the importance of getting vaccinated while promoting unproven medicines, such as cod liver oil, which contains vitamin A. He has also claimed that the inhaled steroid budesonide and the antibiotic clarithromycin resulted in “almost miraculous and instantaneous.” While these may help to treat some of the symptoms associated with measles, they will not prevent infections.

Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist, tore into Kennedy’s remarks in a post on X Tuesday calling his claims “two truths & a lie.”

“Truth: There are adverse events from MMR and all vaccines. Truth: People die, albeit very, very, VERY rarely,” she wrote. “BIG FUCKING LIE: the MMR does NOT cause measles or any sequelae. It prevents measles. It’s safe & effective. Measles disables & kills children.”

In a separate post, she noted that the vaccine’s mortality rate was often “grossly exaggerated” by the anti-vaccine movement, of which Kennedy has long been a fixture.

Not only are Kennedy’s claims false and misleading, and not the position of the government he purports to represent, but they are a dangerous message for Americans in the midst of ongoing measles outbreaks.