The mix of diplomacy, business and ideology that is Trumpism in Greenland

Weekendavisen is a Danish weekly newspaper known for its investigative reporting and its culture section: it published an article recounting the story of Jorgen Waever, a Greenlandic politician married to Vivian Motzfeldt, who served as Foreign Minister until last March and represented the island in negotiations with the Americans that arose after Donald Trump began coveting Greenland in his vague, brazen and frightening manner: with his AI-generated sketches, with posts on Truth in which he spoke of ‘conquering’ or ‘purchasing’ the island, and with his utterly confused remarks about islands and ice that sometimes made it seem as though he was confusing Greenland with Iceland. According to the weekly magazine, the couple’s work was highly appreciated by the Americans, so much so that they bought a house – formally, according to the documents reviewed, registered in Waever’s name – with a payment of 823,000 dollars transferred directly to the seller. Among the benefactors is also the ever-present Ronald Lauder, who has a long-standing passion for Greenland and numerous lucrative interests and who, according to statements made in the past by Trump’s disgraced former adviser, John Bolton, was the first to plant the seed in the president’s mind regarding the idea of buying – or conquering, or occupying, or whatever it may mean: taking over a sovereign territory that is, moreover, part of NATO – Greenland. Waever is not quoted in the investigation; he declined to comment on his new home or on why some Americans are being so generous towards him, but this story forms part of a well-oiled machine within the Trump Administration, which the essayist Anne Applebaum, in her articles and insightful commentaries, describes as a concoction of diplomacy, money and politics orchestrated by informal envoys, companies and ideologues.

The New Yorker has dedicated one of its instantly indispensable profiles, written by Dexter Filkins, to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law-turned-envoy who does not speak but whispers, and who represents “a new figure in Washington, for whom public service is a means to amass extraordinary wealth”. It is ‘dollar diplomacy’ that is summarised in the many accounts cited in the article as a constant buying and selling, in which diplomatic aspects are brushed aside hastily (as is evident: never before have so many ceasefire agreements been breached within a matter of hours, nor so many memoranda of understanding signed in different versions or with references to future negotiations that never take place) in order to move swiftly on to business, to the question ‘what’s in it for us?’, to the exchange of favours, where the line between self-interest and corruption is becoming increasingly blurred. Kushner is the poster child for the shambles that American foreign policy has become (as Applebaum also says: this America does not want to isolate itself, it wants to profit from it), but he is certainly not the only one, and this is what is transforming relations between allies, those with enemies, and the trust that underpins these relationships. (Paola Peduzzi)