Let's talk about Trump ordering tariffs over Greenland.... - Belle of the Ranch

[TexasTowelie]

Well, howdy there Internet people. It's Belle again. So, today we're going to talk about Trump threatening tariffs over Greenland.

A bipartisan congressional delegation arrived in Copenhagen with a simple goal. Turn down the temperature on Trump's Greenland push. They wanted to reassure US allies that we hadn't completely lost our grip on reality and that we weren't really going to invade a NATO ally.

We covered how incredibly unpopular the idea of invading or even buying Greenland is with the American people. Danish officials who apparently understand vote count math better than the Speaker of the House are worried about a vote in Congress that isn't decisive. They understand that the Republican party in Congress has a habit of just doing whatever Trump wants even when it hurts the country. So, it seems like they don't want to vote right now because if it turned out to be a narrow vote, it could undercut their position. Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona, who was putting together a war powers resolution over Greenland, said he was going to keep it on the shelf as an option.

So, while Congress is trying to clean up Trump's mess both in DC and in Denmark, what was Trump doing? Well, Trump was supposed to be talking about health care for Americans and started rambling about the thing he actually cares about, Greenland. He said, "I may put a tariff on countries if they don't go along with Greenland because we need Greenland for national security. So, I may do that."

So while Trump was supposed to be talking about health care in the midst of an affordability crisis, his mind wandered to Greenland and his solution was add tariffs to our allies and make you pay more because you end up paying for his tariffs.

Then today, Trump posted to social media, “starting on February 1st, 2026, all of the above-mentioned countries, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland will be charged a 10% tariff on any and all goods sent to the United States of America. On June 1st, 2026, the tariff will be increased to 25%. This tariff will be due and payable until such time as a deal is reached for the complete and total purchase of Greenland.

We're going to dive deeper into the subtext of his announcement and what it means for Europe tomorrow. This is a major escalation and there's a lot of important bits that will end up being missed in the announcement.

He's doing this on the heels of receiving the news that his tariff war against China and Canada has failed. Canada is simply looking for other trading partners and China is happily picking up partners and global influence. Beijing would absolutely love for Trump to impose more ridiculous tariffs on European allies and nudge them toward China's balance sheet.

If Trump makes it too hard to trade with the US, other countries will stop. They will align with different countries and the US will become weaker both economically and politically. The short version here is that Trump's fascination with dated trade policies is hurting the US economy, our relationship with our closest allies, and frankly our overall place in the world.

Anyway, it's just a thought. Y'all have a good day.