Even the Danes are getting offended. The Danes!
Mark Stroh, the US Chargé d’Affaires in Denmark, arrives on the Ministry of Overseas Affairs in Copenhagen on August 27, 2025.
(Thomas Traasdahl / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP through Getty Photographs)
Earlier than Donald Trump, the thought of a diplomatic spat between Denmark and the US would have sounded outlandish. Much more than a lot of its European friends, Denmark has traditionally positioned a premium on its alliance with the US. In the course of the George W. Bush administration, as an example, it was one of only five Western European countries to enroll in the “coalition of the prepared” supporting the Iraq Warfare (together with the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, and Italy). Of these 5, solely Denmark and the UK actually made a military contribution that was greater than symbolic.
Given this historical past, it’s a singular achievement of Trump’s overseas coverage that he’s managed the beforehand unthinkable: making the Danes mad.
On Wednesday, the Danish overseas minister summoned Mark Stroh, the highest US diplomat in Denmark, demanding solutions about stories that three associates of Trump had been caught attempting to foment a secessionist motion within the Danish territory of Greenland. Trump, after all,has repeatedly called for the annexation of Greenland by the US and refuses to rule out a army invasion. However this was the primary inkling that these plans had been one thing greater than bluster.
Responding to the Danish authorities’s anger, a White Home official told CBS Information, “We predict the Danes must relax.” Good luck with that.
The Danish feud underscores that, much more than in his first time period, Trump’s diplomacy is now little greater than a combination of relentless conceitedness, bluster, and recklessness. Really, calling what Trump and his crew are doing “diplomacy” isn’t fairly proper. As a substitute, they’re utilizing the world stage to point out off their swagger.
Whereas this sort of bullying may impress the MAGA devoted at house, it makes the US look increasingly like a rogue superpower—a nation that also must be appeased due to its remaining financial and army energy, however can’t be trusted as an ally or perhaps a secure fixture in international politics.
Present Situation
The Danes are usually not the one overseas authorities unnecessarily alienated by Trump. Because the Related Press notes,
Stroh is the second American diplomat to be summoned by a European NATO ally this week because the Trump administration shakes up its strategy to overseas coverage. France had known as US Ambassador Charles Kushner to its overseas ministry after he sent a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron alleging the nation didn’t do sufficient to fight antisemitism.
The truth that Kushner is ambassador to France is itself an insult to a serious ally. Kushner is each a nepotism rent (the daddy of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner) and a convicted felon who served time for a sordid scheme involving hiring intercourse employees to blackmail his brother.
And on Tuesday, Tom Barrack, US ambassador to Turkey, sparked even more outrage by telling reporters in a press convention in Lebanon to “act civilized” and never be “animalistic.” The Union of Journalists in Lebanon lambasted these remarks, precisely noting they “mirror a deep-seated colonial superiority towards the peoples of the area and represent a blatant violation of essentially the most primary rules of diplomatic etiquette.” Barrack made these feedback after assembly the president of Lebanon, who apologized to the press for these remarks. Within the face of a backlash, Barrack himself additionally apologized on Thursday.
The boorish habits of Barrack and different diplomats mirrors that of the president. Strikingly, even when Trump needs to make a deal, as he appears to in terms of ending the Ukraine/Russia battle, he’s incapable of doing the diligent engagement with allies and adversaries that’s obligatory for a profitable negotiation. Writing in Foreign Policy, Harvard worldwide relations professor Stephen Walt observes:
Trump is a horrible negotiator…. He doesn’t put together, doesn’t have subordinates lay the groundwork beforehand, and arrives at every assembly not figuring out what he needs or the place his crimson strains are. He has no technique and isn’t within the particulars, so he simply wings it.
As we realized throughout his first time period, when he wasted time on these irrelevant reality-show conferences with North Korean chief Kim Jong Un, all Trump actually craves is consideration, coupled with dramatic visuals that counsel he’s in cost. The substance of any deal he may make is secondary if not irrelevant, which is why a few of the commerce agreements he’s lately introduced are less favorable for the US than he claims.
Trump’s bombastic, blowhard strategy is hurting America’s fame, particularly amongst erstwhile allies. A Pew survey of global public opinion launched in June exhibits that in lots of international locations, there’s “no confidence” that the US will do the best factor in world affairs: In Canada the “no confidence” opinion was held by a supermajority of 77 p.c, in the UK 62 p.c, in Greece 63 p.c, within the Netherlands 77 p.c, in France 78 p.c, in Spain 80 p.c, in Germany 81 p.c, in Turkey 80 p.c, in Sweden 85 p.c, in South Korea 67 p.c, in Australia 77 p.c, and in Mexico 91 p.c.
Writing for Mission Syndicate in June, Amitav Acharya, a world relations professor at American College in Washington, DC, cogently argued that the harm to America’s fame would outlast the present Trump administration:
Widespread
“swipe left under to view extra authors”Swipe →
Some may hope that Trump’s alienation of US allies will be reversed beneath the subsequent administration. Don’t wager on it. No matter how Trump’s tariff battle performs out, the harm to the thought of the West has already been finished. As European Fee President Ursula von der Leyenput it, “The West as we knew it not exists.” The Liberal Occasion’s astonishing comeback in Canada exhibits the depth of that nation’s revulsion vis-à-vis the US. Relationships that had been shredded in a single day will take years to rebuild.
America’s erstwhile allies must confront the truth that Trumpism will not be going away. Trump was elected not simply as soon as however twice. The Republican Occasion has been remade in his picture and he has many heirs able to take up his mantle. Future Republican presidents, whether or not they be JD Vance or Ron DeSantis or another determine, will observe in Trump’s footsteps. Much more troubling is the truth that Democrats have themselves adopted some strands of America First, as seen by Joe Biden’s strikes to heighten great-power competition with China and to undermine international law within the protection of Israel’s horrific battle in Gaza.
America is more and more behaving like a rogue superpower. One nice query within the coming a long time can be how lengthy the world will tolerate this habits or whether or not the alliances that undergird American energy will come crashing down.
On this second of disaster, we want a unified, progressive opposition to Donald Trump.
We’re beginning to see one take form within the streets and at poll packing containers throughout the nation: from New York Metropolis mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s marketing campaign targeted on affordability, to communities defending their neighbors from ICE, to the senators opposing arms shipments to Israel.
The Democratic Occasion has an pressing option to make: Will it embrace a politics that’s principled and in style, or will it proceed to insist on dropping elections with the out-of-touch elites and consultants that bought us right here?
At The Nation, we all know which facet we’re on. On daily basis, we make the case for a extra democratic and equal world by championing progressive leaders, lifting up actions combating for justice, and exposing the oligarchs and firms profiting on the expense of us all. Our impartial journalism informs and empowers progressives throughout the nation and helps deliver this politics to new readers prepared to hitch the struggle.
We’d like your assist to proceed this work. Will you donate to help The Nation’s impartial journalism? Each contribution goes to our award-winning reporting, evaluation, and commentary.
Thanks for serving to us tackle Trump and construct the simply society we all know is feasible.
Sincerely,
Bhaskar Sunkara
President, The Nation
Extra from The Nation
New York State is a case examine in Democrats’ failure to know the evolving political panorama.
On daily basis, the genocide in Gaza, armed conflicts, displacement, and hunger end in hundreds of thousands of victims and refugees around the globe.
Many non-white communities elevated their help for the president. He’s concentrating on them anyway.
Rob Bonta, California’s lawyer normal, is utilizing the courts to rein in Trump and, for now, it’s principally working.