Abigail Tracy, Vanity Fair: “He Has Made Us a Laughing Stock”: Diplomats Stunned by Trump’s Feud With Denmark
“Sometimes it is hard to believe that what Trump is saying and doing on the world stage is actually happening,” said the former ambassador to NATO. “This is one of those days.”
Donald Trump’s preposterous fixation with buying Greenland, initially treated as a distraction by American media and a joke by the Danish government, became less amusing Tuesday night when the president declared that he would be canceling his planned diplomatic trip to Denmark in retaliation. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had told the White House, that Greenland, an autonomous territory in the Arctic, wasn’t Denmark’s to sell.
“Sometimes it is hard to believe that what Trump is saying and doing on the world stage is actually happening,” said Nicholas Burns, the former U.S. ambassador to NATO. “This is one of those days.” Denmark, after all, is a key partner in the North Atlantic alliance, and was among the first countries to pledge military support in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 40 Danish troops died in Helmand province, fighting alongside American and British soldiers.
“I realize this is yet another bizarre and humorous Trump moment for the late night talk shows here in the U.S.,” Burns told me. “But, for the rest of the world, particularly our allies, it is simply shocking how far America has fallen from grace in their eyes.”
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WNU Editor: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen picked the fight by saying it was absurd. The proper response was to simply say no. President Trump should not have cancelled the trip. This was one of those moments where you object to another leader's remarks privately. As to former U.S. diplomats like never-Trumper Nicholas Burns saying this is making the U.S. a "laughing stock". My response is no. It does the opposite. You attack the U.S. President or the U.S., expect blow-back from this President.
