President Donald Trump continued his threats to seize Greenland in an exchange of messages with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. Trump wrote that the world will not be “secure” unless the U.S. has “Complete and Total Control” over the Danish autonomous territory.
That message came shortly after Trump announced he would impose tariffs on European allies who oppose his Greenland crusade.
On Monday’s “The Weeknight,” former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said that Trump’s push to acquire the U.S. ally is without precedent. While he acknowledged Trump has “had a lot of crazy ideas” when it comes to foreign policy, the former ambassador said “annexing Greenland is the worst idea ever.”
“It’s the dumbest idea ever,” he continued. “It’s the worst idea I can remember in American foreign policy history.”
“If there’s really a threat from Russia and China, we can put our forces there,” he explained. “We can put our missiles there. We can build the dome, the missile defense system, without annexation. If we need minerals, we can contract for them. We can invest there.”
McFaul argued that seizing Greenland has “nothing to do with our security” and instead “has everything to do with Trump’s vanity.”
“This is a vanity project he wants. He wants Greenland to become Trump-land,” he said, “and it’s just as simple as that.”
McFaul urged lawmakers to unite against Trump’s efforts. “Every presidential candidate should pledge right now, if this happens, God forbid, we will reverse it when we win in 2028. There should be legislation posed tomorrow to vote on a resolution that says we will not invade our allies.”
“We have to push back on it, because the stakes here are really, really big,” he said.
“I’m not looking for any heroes,” McFaul continued. “I’m just looking for people to act in their own self-interest, and when Americans [by a margin of] 80 to 20 say this is a bad idea, you don’t have to have a Ph.D. in political science to understand which way you should be moving if you want to win re-election.”
“I just think the president is completely out of step with the American people on this,” he said.
You can watch McFaul’s full analysis in the clip at the top of the page.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW. She was previously a segment producer for “AYMAN” and “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”