12 ms·
Eight European countries face 10% tariff for opposing US control of Greenland
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- padjo 9mo agoIf I had a hammer…
- polotics 9mo agoHopefully the supreme court comes to its senses and realize that if they don't stop the madness now, the American people are going back to king rule, and their legacy as well as survival of their institution has one big question mark on it.
- NewJazz 9mo agoI'm convinced that they don't care.
- lotsofpulp 9mo agoIf they do not step in when this admin is attacking America, they sure as hell are not going to step in when this admin attacks other countries.
- mdhb 9mo agoRight… why do you think they spent so much time intentionally rigging the courts with illegitimate judges? They’ve been planning a non-democratic takeover of the country FOR A LONG FUCKING TIME. They are just more open about it now.
- padjo 9mo agoThey’re due to rule on his tariffs soon. If they find he exceeded his power then a real showdown starts.
- pixelesque 9mo agoTo think Ted Cruz was partially on the money when he said in 2016 that "Donald might wake up one morning and nuke Denmark". What has happened to the US...
- sixothree 9mo agoFox News happened.
- tstrimple 9mo agoRight wing media and Newt Gingrich have really done a number on this country.
- komali2 9mo agoMaybe. I feel like I watched live on 4chan as Trump was presented as a joke and then true believers started posting as well. Maybe 4chan was documenting the phenomenon but it always felt like it willed it into existence like it did q-anon.
- ZeroGravitas 9mo agoMy similar take is that the edgy 4 Chan users were just kids who grew up in Fox viewing households. They willed into existence the propaganda that had been bathing them since birth.
- swed420 9mo agoIt's probably multiple factors at play. Look up the pied piper "strategy" that Dems used to intentionally elevate Trump, exposed by wikileaks.
- ruszki 9mo agoIt's not "maybe". As someone who born in Hungary, and have been experiencing our lovely full blown fascist propaganda longer than it became mainstream in the US, Fox News is definitely worse than our main propaganda channel. I was "lucky" to watch it in February, when I was there, and it's pure hate. I cannot imagine that anybody who don't switch channels quite quickly is not an asshole at this point. You cannot bear that shit if you are not a dickhead. I understand that it was slowly normalized, and people don't realize this. But right now on an absolute scale, you have to be pure assholes. Similar thing happened in Hungary, but our government never went to this low as Fox News does. Also looking at right wing pundits' Twitter, there are usually two types of tweets: non-whites making some illegal activities, or stupid; and whites are suppressed. It was funny when Charlie Kirk died and his Twitter account until that point for at least a month contained only, and seriously only these kind of tweets, and it was a question whether he was racist, or not... After his death, Musk definitely pushed the normalization, because my right wing account over there started to be really crazy with these kind of tweets.
- CodingJeebus 9mo agoNever thought I'd see NATO under such pressure in my lifetime.
- palata 9mo agoUnder those conditions, one could wonder if NATO is still actually a thing.
- jleyank 9mo agoIf the Europeans plus Canada want it to exist, it exists. Otherwise, yeah, scrap heap of history.
- hermanzegerman 9mo agoEU has it's own more robust defence agreement.
- jleyank 9mo agoCan Canada join, or has it? Other non-EU countries?
- aebtebeten 9mo agoI'm sure Canada could join Operation Arctic Endurance; has it yet?
- illiac786 9mo agoHow is it more robust? There is no EU army, is there?
- hermanzegerman 9mo agoThe EU defence clause is more binding than the NATO Article 5. It also demands that the other states * obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power* whereas Article 5 let's other states decide how much aid they want to supply
- jonathanstrange 9mo agoA badge of honor. Although it's good to be cautious about retaliatory measures, it is perhaps time to think about imposing a digital services tax. That being said, it's quite weird that these tariffs are imposed only on some EU countries (plus UK). How could that possibly work? EU companies can just export goods via other EU countries.
- deaux 9mo agoOf course, the DST should be instated ASAP regardless of what the US does - not having one is completely absurd in this day and age, one needs domestic industry to survive as a country (or federation) and that doesn't happen with 0% tarriffs, which is what "no DST" is the equivalent of for tech.
- BikiniPrince 9mo agoSure if they want to chase away their tax revenue.
- bootsmann 9mo agoThey're too big of a market to have companies pull out over this. China has even worse conditions for foreign companies and everyone bends over backwards for a chance to sell there. Counter to popular sentiment in US tech circles, as of this year the EU is the world's second biggest economy (beating China to third place).
- shlip 9mo agoWhat tax revenue ? Aren't they all declaring their profits in Ireland (a tax haven) ?
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- zppln 9mo agoWasn't there some kind of military exercise around Greenland the other day? I assume these are the countries that participated?
- shlip 9mo agoWe will soon discover if the EU actually as a spine or is just a bendover for the US...(My money is on the latter, and I'm from EU)
- komali2 9mo agoFascist states get at least one free pass. For Germany it was Poland, for the USA I believe they're deciding between Venezuela and Greenland. Personally I think the better bet is Greenland because they can probably get Venezuela for free after since nobody cares about Venezuela. A "two in one deal" if you will, perhaps one of America's greatest inventions. Edit: I meant to write Austria but am so used to writing "German invasion of Poland" that that's what came out of the thumbs
- SirWalross 9mo agoPoland was hardly a free pass. The Sudetenland was the free pass.
- LexiMax 9mo agoI'd hardly call any of Germany's prewar annexations free. It was clear very early on that Germany was being led by a violent bully, so past a certain point appeasement wasn't a blank check, but was instead intended to buy time to spin up war industries.
- wongarsu 9mo agoThe Greenland situation is more like Germany annexing the Sudetenland (the border regions of Czechoslovakia) in 1938. And after that Hitler got his homeland Austria as another freebie. That's stretching the analogy a bit, but Venezuela might be Trump's Austria. His Poland would be something like Canada
- padjo 9mo agoAlso from the EU and I think the EU cannot back down here. The only way the US gets Greenland is if they seize it or the population votes for it. A tariff is just not going to make a difference and underlines to the EU how craven the US has become.
- lousken 9mo agoI am wondering why Trump seems so eager to turn America back into a 19th-century. Slavery next on his agenda?
- deaux 9mo agoSurely you're not wondering, it's universally known what motivates the man.
- lousken 9mo agoBut that plan is so short sighted that even he might live long enough to see it fail
- gitaarik 9mo agoHe's on a race because he knows his time is limited, eventually the Epstein files will be exposed. Time will tell.
- Hamuko 9mo agoI thought you guys were already doing slavery but just calling it penal labor.
- deaux 9mo agoThis is great news, though a higher percentage would be welcome. The sooner Europe rips off the bandaid, the better.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 9mo agoEurope waking up would even be good for the US long term. The US has coasted on success and grown fat on lack of competition.
- _DeadFred_ 9mo ago"Things are going to be so much better when we needlessly make them shittier." WTF Americans. We will do anything to just be chill with this crap. I don't know about you, but in school when I was lazy and waited for the last minute and did my work purely out of pressure I did not, in fact, do better work, and got worse outcomes (a worse grade than I normally got).
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- mcphage 9mo ago>> Europe waking up would even be good for the US long term. > "Things are going to be so much better when we needlessly make them shittier." I don’t think Europe becoming more competitive would make things shittier at all. Why do you think that?
- _DeadFred_ 9mo agoWhy Truncate quotes to to make it sound like I was responding to something other than what I did? The post are right on top of eachother. It might be good for Europe/the world, but it is not 'America first' or good for America. Why would we want to inflict MORE competition on ourselves? We can easily create competition within our own country if that is a desirable outcome. To beat my analogy to death if a class is graded on a curve, I'm not recruiting the smartest people I know into it just because 'that will make me try/work harder'.
- picafrost 9mo agoTotally bizarre to watch the US transform from the endearingly crazy and rich friend to the one who holds you at gunpoint and robs you.
- loloquwowndueo 9mo agoTransforms. Look at history, they’ve always done that when convenient to them.
- devsda 9mo agoTrue. Those who think they are being unfair just now, this is actually the fairest they've been since forever. Fairest in terms of arm twisting and other tactics being applied to everyone equally instead of being selective. Previously it was on the lines of the west and the rest, but now its just America and the rest.
- mindslight 9mo agoSo edgy, much wow. Try continuing this line of thought instead of stopping at one novel half-thought. Perhaps there is something to the western world order that's worth defending? As an American I will argue against my government's unilateral global adventurism all day long. That certainly doesn't mean that expanding the behavior is progress.
- devsda 9mo ago> As an American I will argue against my government's unilateral global adventurism all day long I'm sure there are many Americans who would oppose this adventurism. I'm not sure whether that's because they believe its just a bad strategy to continue the status quo or because its just plainly a wrong way to treat other nations by force. > That certainly doesn't mean that expanding the behavior is progress. I don't mean it as progress. Its a regression but I hope there's a silver-lining at the end of all this for everyone.
- 9mo ago
- mesk 9mo agoAnd the question is, What the hell is in the Epstein files that this is needed.... :-)
- wombatpm 9mo agoIt was bad enough that they stripped Andrew of his titles, staff and property.
- lawn 9mo agoA snuff film where the witness implicates Trump is something we already know about. I'm not sure I have the stomach to know how deep it really goes.
- tim333 9mo agoDid you see the Daily Show bit asking if Putin has the photo's of Trump blowing Bubba? https://youtu.be/uaAuXttZbDM?t=81 https://youtu.be/uaAuXttZbDM?t=81
- Trasmatta 9mo agoThere's no reason for the US to own Greenland except for the hyperfixation of one man. I hate that this is the world we continue to live in.
- alibarber 9mo agoI think he knows the end* is drawing near and he hasn't got long to cement his legacy in painting more of the map in his colours. * 'end' being anything from nature's course, to losing the support of his own inner core as they jostle for succession, upcoming midterms leading to impeachment...
- Trasmatta 9mo agoEvery morning I wake up wondering if it's happened yet, and every morning (so far) I've been disappointed
- DustinEchoes 9mo agoI was glad when the Butler shooter missed. Now I’m not so sure.
- cudgy 9mo agoSo you would prefer Trump be a martyr?
- DustinEchoes 9mo agoTrumps death would have been out of the news cycle within a month, just look at Charlie Kirk.
- shlip 9mo agoWell he's been impeached twice (then acquitted) already, so this one will not really mean the end for him.
- OutOfHere 9mo agoAs a American, given what the US is becoming now, also given that Denmark actually has reliable public healthcare and the US canceled it for its own people, Greenland is better off staying with Denmark than with the US. If Russia were to invade, NATO still holds. This is about more oil mining, about Trump appeasing to his oil friends, considering Greenland very likely has a substantial quantity of it.
- Calavar 9mo agoI don't think any oil execs are interested in this, just like they weren't interested in investing in Venezuela after Maduro's ouster (at least if you believe the Financial Times). Rather these invasions appear to be the pet projects of neo-imperialist advisors in the government who see national growth as a zero sum game, a Starcraft-esque race for a finite set of resources where powerful countries can generate wealth only by using their power to steal from others. In Steven Miller's own words: "[The world] is governed by force, [is] governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time."
- microtonal 9mo agoI think it's even simpler than that. Trump wants accolades next to his name - one of the few presidents to have won the Nobel Peace Prize and one of the few presidents that added land to the US. Instead he will soon be remembered as the worst US president ever - even after his first term he was already third-worst in most rankings and his second term is orders of magnitude worse. He will be remembered as the president that destroyed the constitution, destroyed America's formidable power projection, the president that destroyed 60 year long alliances, the president that was unimaginably corrupt. I just hope that American school books will also contain the verdict.
- exabrial 9mo ago> Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland would face the tariff and that it would climb to 25% on June 1 if a deal is not in place for “the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland” by the United States
- Jackson__ 9mo agoMe wonders how many millions of peasants he is ready to throw into the wood chipper to pay for this. Just kidding, of course I know it's all of them.
- joduplessis 9mo agoI wish Europe would just push back. More than what they are currently. There is so much potential there, but somehow the EU all look at the US as some form of idealogical father figure. Excuse the hyperbolic-talk.
- palata 9mo agoI don't think it is true. It's like saying "I wish those kids didn't let the bigger one bully them". The reason the bully is bullying is because he is in a position to do it. The EU is being careful because the US are more powerful.
- Trasmatta 9mo agoTrump has repeatedly backed off when he's challenged. It's happened time and time again. It's the reason TACO is a thing. The best strategy against him is to be relentless about pushing back, even if on paper the US is more powerful.
- komali2 9mo agoIt seems you can also just lie to help him save face, like Canada did when it agreed it would adopt very strict border control policies to stop "drugs coming into the USA," and listed out steps that all were just existent Canadian laws and policies.
- Trasmatta 9mo agoYeah, another strategy is to just give him something he can claim as a W even if it's bullshit, or to glaze him enough. He's so hyperfixated on owning Greenland though, that I'm not sure those will work this time.
- jonathanstrange 9mo agoThe problem that US generals have right now is that Trump has gotten the idea that the US (viz., he himself, in his mind) ought to literally own Greenland and he does know how real estate works. Treaties, mineral deals, guarantees for additional military bases that would mean de facto control over Greenland would work with a rational person. However, they won't work with someone who insists on buying or annexing a country to own its territory.
- bertili 9mo agoWhat a time to be (still) alive. When we look back in a few years and ask the question: who actually got to pay for the Epstein crimes and coverups, we come to the surprising answer it is the Greenlandes and other innocent societies that got ripped apart by this maniac and his supporters.
- KeplerBoy 9mo agoAlso the entire economy. Stocks are at an all time high on both sides of the Atlantic but the real world economy is struggling.
- jonkoops 9mo agoSince the only thing Trump understands is force, I am looking forward to the retaliation from and military positioning of EU member states to defend Greenland. Perhaps it is what is needed to finally impeach.
- palata 9mo agoImpeaching has to come from inside the US. Doesn't really look like there is much opposition from inside, is there?
- cudgy 9mo agoTrump has already been impeached … twice … from within the US.
- palata 9mo agoYeah I don't think that's what the comment I was answering to meant with "to finally impeach".
- jonkoops 9mo agoImpeaching happens when the President is held accountable, only dissatisfaction in the electorate will cause that. Trump has already committed many crimes that he could be held accountable for. If the EU pressures the US, and it messes with the quality of life, that creates pressure on him as well. It all trickles, until it becomes a storm.
- tpm 9mo agoThe EU is not a military/security alliance (yet).
- saubeidl 9mo ago7. If a Member State is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other Member States shall have towards it an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power, in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. This shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain Member States. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/treaty/teu_2016/art_42/oj/eng https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/treaty/teu_2016/art_42/oj/eng
- komali2 9mo agoI liked this bit by Doctorow recently https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/01/39c3/ https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/01/39c3/ If you're getting tariffs anyway, why not just take the yoke of American business protection laws off your shoulders? Let French engineers sell jailbreaking hardware for iphones, or Romanian developers sell unlock keys for John Deere tractors.
- alephnerd 9mo ago> why not just take the yoke of American business protection laws off your shoulders... Because that means we in the US may as well quasi-nationalize major European investments in the US like VW, Siemens, Saint-Gobains, OnSemi, NXP, Arm, and Nexperia and target European luxury cultural exports like Cognac (LVHM), Wine (LVMH), designer clothes (LVMH), designer purses (LVMH), and others like China did. As a result, oligarchs like (eg.) Arnault (LVMH) would metaphorically slap Macron like they did on multiple occasions [0][1], and threaten to switch to supporting the RN. If they made Macron in 2017 [2], they can unmake him in 2026 [3]. It's the same story across Europe [4][5]. And any domestic capacity that could have remained within the EU is going to start leaving on January 27th [6]. Edit: can't reply > how you get from IP law abrogation to 'quasi- nationalization' IP Law protection is sacrosanct in any US trade deal, as we are a services exporter. If faced by actions like those mentioned above, we wouldn't be above retaliating. This is why American tech companies successfully lobbied both the Biden and Trump administration to tamp down on any attempt on a Digital Services Tax by any country, such as with Canada [7] and the EU [8]. [0] - https://www.reuters.com/world/frances-richest-man-lvmhs-arnault-slams-proposed-billionaire-tax-2025-09-21/ https://www.reuters.com/world/frances-richest-man-lvmhs-arna... [1] - https://www.lemonde.fr/en/politics/article/2023/08/07/how-bernard-arnault-the-world-s-richest-man-is-expanding-his-empire_6083553_5.html https://www.lemonde.fr/en/politics/article/2023/08/07/how-be... [2] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-05/lvmh-s-arnault-joins-french-ceos-backing-macron-over-le-pen https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-05/lvmh-s-ar... [3] - https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/culture-et-idees/dossier/la-croisade-culturelle-de-vincent-bollore https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/culture-et-idees/dossier/la... [4] - https://www.ft.com/content/9b3d057c-16cc-4ab9-93bb-ed82c9ca596b https://www.ft.com/content/9b3d057c-16cc-4ab9-93bb-ed82c9ca5... [5] - https://www.ft.com/content/cc06031c-f4a9-45db-ba3a-a3a23404b1f9 https://www.ft.com/content/cc06031c-f4a9-45db-ba3a-a3a23404b... [6] - https://www.euractiv.com/news/exclusive-eu-india-trade-deal-will-exclude-agriculture-von-der-leyen-says/ https://www.euractiv.com/news/exclusive-eu-india-trade-deal-... [7] - https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2025/06/canada-rescinds-digital-services-tax-to-advance-broader-trade-negotiations-with-the-united-states.html https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2025/06/can... [8] - https://www.finance.senate.gov/chairmans-news/-wyden-and-crapo-call-on-biden-administration-to-fight-eu-digital-trade-policies-that-discriminate-against-us-workers-and-employers https://www.finance.senate.gov/chairmans-news/-wyden-and-cra...
- mrtksn 9mo agoSo they will make the paperwork to ship from an EU country that doesn’t face the extra tariffs? EU is a single market. That’s the whole point of EU.
- dh2022 9mo agoGreat point... Whichever country Donnie forgot to put on the list will become the country of import... This would not even require physical move of goods. What a joke this is....
- magicalhippo 9mo agoThat would be falsifying the country of origin. The fact that the ship sailed from Greece or whatever doesn't change the fact the part was made in France say.
- verzali 9mo agoAnd so what? The rule of law hardly seems to matter any more.
- magicalhippo 9mo agoPoint taken...
- mrtksn 9mo agoNope, you form a company in Italy and sell your goods you produce in France to that company. That Italian company ships it the same way you always did. Since Trump is erratic and there's no real trade deal between those countries and thus US doesn't have a case to claim that someone is breaking the rules of origin. Not to even mention that you can't put tariffs on individual EU countries anyway. That's EUs domain. If you think that this wouldn't happen, check out Germany's exports to Kazakstan and other neighbors of Russia after EU started sanctioning Russia. It's not just possible, it's commonplace.
- magicalhippo 9mo ago
- ViewTrick1002 9mo agoWith this the EU-US tariff deal from earlier goes down in flames. It apparently wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. Not surprising given how Trump and the fascist MAGA crowd acts. The UK are in a precarious spot though due to not being inside the EU single market and are forced to find their own way out with a much weaker hand. Brexit forever and ever coming back to haunt the UK.
- wongarsu 9mo agoWhy didn't Russia think of that? They could have just placed tariffs on France, Germany, the UK, etc. if they don't facilitate Russia purchasing Ukraine for a price of their choice /s
- paxys 9mo agoSee the recent news about Canada strengthening economic ties with China and welcoming them into their auto market. This wouldn’t have happened in a million years had it not been for US tariffs and hostilities towards Canada. America is truly uniting the world (against them).
- padjo 9mo agoThe EU/Mercosur deal looks like it’s going to pass too. This move will only make it more likely. America first will become America alone pretty quickly.
- jijijijij 9mo agoI think this is the biggest indicator of permanent damage. The EU politicians aren't as impulsive and loud as the US, they won't do anything drastic when necessary changes take time to implement. They will buffer this hurt as much as they can, to cut their losses. However, the fact the trade deal now suddenly passed, after 20 years(?) of talk, points to a fundamental shift behind the scenes. Things are clearly in progress. I presume, it's the lack of opposition and outrage. Americans letting it happen. It's evident, there is no waiting this out. Today it's Trump, tomorrow it's Vance or whatever lunatic. 38 trillion debt, but nothing to show for it, foreign assets abandoned, power projection crumbling and spread thin. Things are expected to get unstable. The US will never be trusted or even respected again, not any time soon.
- blibble 9mo ago> The US will never be trusted or even respected again, not any time soon. not until the US fundamentally changes its political system such that this type of capture can't happen again which short of a civil war, I can't see happening
- jijijijij 9mo agoThe president who is willing to fix this will have to bend the knee. The US behavior is straight insulting and caused major economic damage. If your drunk uncle pointed a gun to your head, a simple "Sorry!" won't do. Quite frankly, considering the wide diplomatic damage and collapsing influence, paired with its deep social, cultural and economic internal issues... I can totally see the US failing. They depend so much on power projection and economic influence, I don't see how they could possibly manage on their own. What will happen to the dollar if the US isn't guaranteeing stability anymore? The debt will explode and former allies may call on their stake. Due to the AI bubble, the American economy is worse than it looks. It may all come down together. Is California going to hold the bag for Florida? What's being American other than an international embarrassment and a bully, at this point? How strong is the shared identity when it comes to it? With ICE and all, can they get over the differences in "opinion" about who's deserving human rights and who doesn't?
- fritzorino 9mo agoSo in order to threaten our great continent and civilisation, Trump is threatening to raise taxes on Americans. The USA is so cringe.
- rwyinuse 9mo agoIt's about time for EU to put 50% tax on American digital services, and get rid of all Microsoft products in public sector.
- Imustaskforhelp 9mo agoThe downstream effects for America of this can be so insane that this might be the reason that the bubble might pop in the first place when reality sets in. Somebody should do a cost analysis of this and how it would impact S&P and the downstream effects of that as well and so on.
- Redori 9mo agoLet’s see Europe survive without American tech
- tremon 9mo agoYes, please.
- layer8 9mo agoWhich particular tech are you thinking of?
- Redori 9mo agoGoogle search, all social media, every LLM, etc
- pintxo 9mo agoSearch will be a problem for a while, but that's solvable. You really think the absence of social media would be a negative? Don't think much of Europe is dependent on LLMs, yet.
- hermanzegerman 9mo ago
- fofoz 9mo agoMy impression as a European is that trust in the United States has now been burned, and that companies are slowly, but inexorably, completely rethinking their dependence on the U.S. I believe this is a process that is not reversible in the medium term. Trump, like any politician, will sooner or later pass. How many institutional reforms will the United States have to undertake, and how long will it take before the world trusts them again?
- AnimalMuppet 9mo agoThe thing is that, even if Trump never becomes a full-out authoritarian, sooner or later someone will follow that path and do so (unless there are institutional reforms with teeth after Trump is gone). I don't trust the US to remain a real democracy long-term, even after Trump is gone.
- cudgy 9mo agoUS was never a real democracy; it is a representative republic consisting of 2 primary parties both coopted by billionares.
- lysace 9mo agoThis is correct. Our company (about 40 people in the engineering team) just did a painful move from homegrown orchestration of EC2 instances to containerized ECS/Fargate. We will now move to some form of "pure" EU-hosted K8s. No more AWS. I bet we will end up saving lots of money too. Kubernetes was always the next step. We just didn't know the trigger would be the US going _this_ hostile. Our marketing director chipped in and thinks it will be worth quite a lot if we can show/say that our service is completely independent of the US - but she wants to say it more diplomatically - exactly how is tbd. I disagree. We should just write it out loud and be proud about it. We'll see. Perhaps: "We work and live in X land. We run all of services in X land, in facilities owned by people living in X land.
- jacquesm 9mo agoThat's happening all over Europe but very quietly. The thing to watch is earnings reports of Q1 2027, that's when these chickens will come home to roost. Lots of contracts renew at the end of the year, or not...
- AnimalMuppet 9mo agoSo Trump doesn't like the fact that some European countries dare to oppose his dictat, so in response he's going to... raise the prices on US consumers?
- lyu07282 9mo agoHe was actually asked about why he is even doing this nonsense by the NYT, since they can get Denmark already to agree on any new military bases (they already have one) or mineral extraction anyway: David E. Sanger: Why is ownership important here? President Trump: Because that’s what I feel is psychologically needed for success. I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can’t do, whether you’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document, that you can have a base. Katie Rogers Psychologically important to you or to the United States? President Trump Psychologically important for me. Now, maybe another president would feel differently, but so far I’ve been right about everything. Just imagine the amount of lives that it will cost to carve him from his bloody throne and drag his supporters into deprogramming camps. It will only get more costly with each passing month. https://archive.ph/EhTNh https://archive.ph/EhTNh
- TrackerFF 9mo agoIt is wildly fascinating to experience, in real time, how fragile the US system is. Trump really did show that the US is built on the assumption that people in power will behave, basically a honor system. Trump is stress testing every single aspect of the US. He's dousing the US with gasoline, and fumbling around with matches. The people around him, knee deep in gas, are too afraid to take the matches from him. In so many other countries, Trump would face a no confidence vote. Snap elections.
- fritzorino 9mo agoYeah those checks and balances that Yanks are always waxing poetic about have turned out to be basically horse shit. There are no checks and balances, they elect a king for 4 years and then hope for the best. That's the American system.
- blibble 9mo agoit's the same brilliant system that requires the current incumbent to certify their replacement
- cudgy 9mo agoLol … you think the president is in control.
- fritzorino 9mo agoLol... he is in control, since he is the president... lol.... lol...
- pseudalopex 9mo ago> Trump really did show that the US is built on the assumption that people in power will behave, basically a honor system. > In so many other countries, Trump would face a no confidence vote. Snap elections. US Congress could do many things. But Trump's party support him. Or fear his supporters would not vote for them in the next elections. Or fear worse.
- 9mo ago
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- jeppester 9mo agoCan this be revoked after the midterms? In that case I guess the EU can wait it out.
- forgotTheLast 9mo agoThe tariffs are claimed to be a national security emergency and without the approval or Congress, therefore the composition of Congress won't matter unless the Supreme court judges otherwise.
- AnimalMuppet 9mo agoBut the Supreme Court is going to judge, sooner rather than later. I sincerely hope they will rule against Trump (that seems to me the way that the merits of the case demand).
- cudgy 9mo agoSupreme court cannot rule against all tariffs. Some tariffs will remain and adminstration can “reclassify”.
- tim333 9mo agoThough presumably they may require congressional approval for the tariffs?
- cudgy 9mo agoI believe the president has the right to impose tariffs if it is for national security reasons. National security can be widely applied towards many products like food and major inputs like tech, metals, drugs, etc. Therefore, the administration can simply re-classify any existing tariffs that are not justified for national security reasons and fall within this product mix.
- morkalork 9mo agoIf there are midterms.
- jijijijij 9mo agoTakes century to bake biggest cake ever. Clown enters stage, applause. Clown throws cake to the ground. Audience waits for joke. Curtain falls. 38 trillion dollar bill for cake. Audience is the joke.
- penguin_booze 9mo agoAudience did paid for the ticket ("vote") to the show, though. As always: hire a clown, expect a circus.
- bigbadfeline 9mo agoThe bill was almost the same before the vote. A single vote or a single person decide nothing. The candidates were selected and the vote was driven where it had to be by those with real power over the the two parties, there was no real choice. What you see now would happen regardless of who the public voted for.
- phs318u 9mo ago> What you see now would happen regardless of who the public voted for. No. If Biden had attempted even a tenth (or Obama a hundredth) of what Trump has done, he’d be facing Nixon-level approbation and possibly real jail time.
- cudgy 9mo agoBiden caused much harm as well, but he was not as overt as Trump. Trump reveals it out loud while Biden (and most politicians) said it in secret chambers.
- fritzorino 9mo ago[flagged]
- 9mo ago
- ofrzeta 9mo agoWhat's next? Will he stamp on the ground like a five year old? I mean, there's this treaty between the US and Denmark that they can build military bases etc. "The U.S. has such a free hand in Greenland that it can pretty much do what it wants," said Mikkel Runge Olesen, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies in Copenhagen. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/world/europe/trump-greenland-denmark-us-defense-pact.html https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/world/europe/trump-greenl... So what's the point? The guy in charge just can't ask nicely? EDIT: I think the treaty is this one from 1951 https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/den001.asp https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/den001.asp
- _DeadFred_ 9mo agoThe US stations less people in Greenland than we did during the Cold War. Security is not an actual concern (or we would, you know, station people there to provide security). Trump wants to be remembered, and adding a bunch of land is traditionally the way people he admires (like Putin) try to do that. It's all ego.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- fatbird 9mo agoTrump wants to brag, and be remembered, for adding Greenland to America, in the same way that Alaska was bought from Russia, or Louisiana from the French.
- jensgk 9mo agoThe US is a complete mess and completely unreliable as a defense and business partner. Trump is driving Europe towards China. Even though China supports Russia against Ukraine, China seems much more dependable to do fair business with.
- koonsolo 9mo agoChina is predictable, since they act in self intrest. No idea what the hell US is doing.
- cudgy 9mo agoSelf interests of whom? China is a diverse, huge country.
- koonsolo 9mo agoEvery group is diverse. You want me to specify it to each individual? China as a country of course, what else?
- cudgy 9mo agoYes, countries are not monolithic entities. Such generalized statements don’t really mean much and don’t convey much. I doubt whether you know what self interest “China” is interested in as it would depend on context. I prefer statements like the leadership of China or the people of China or the military industrial complex of China or the Uighyrs of China. Even better it would be to provide accurate polls of the groups to determine what their self interest actually are. I think you would agree that all of these groups have different priorities and therefore different self interest.
- koonsolo 9mo agoThose groups you mention are also not monolithic entities.
- tailspin2019 9mo agoBeing from the UK - one of the privileged few to be tariffed - I couldn’t give a fuck about this. The thing that makes me viscerally angry in my soul though is reading about Greenlanders who are now stocking up on food and/or making plans to leave their country if the worst case happens. What the actual fuck. I can’t believe this is the reality we’re living in. So, tariff away. As someone else said, it’s a badge of honour at this point.
- fritzorino 9mo agoYep, as a former Atlanticist and admirer of the USA, who cares any more? Any opportunity to upset Trump is worth Trump putting up taxes on Americans (aka tariffs).
- cudgy 9mo agoSo throw caution to the wind because a country (not your country) with 100,000 people are stressed out about geopolitics and possibly being acquired by the richest nation in the world?
- tailspin2019 9mo ago> “throw caution to the wind” Would you say the US government is acting with “caution” regarding a country (not their country) of 57,000 “stressed-out” people who don’t want to be acquired?
- cudgy 9mo agoThe president isn’t, but what does that have to do with your decisions?
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- insane_dreamer 9mo agoFor those who think the US is too big to fail, the U.K. in 1900 was the leading economy in the world with an empire on which the sun never set.
- SpicyLemonZest 9mo agoDon't you see how this kind of thinking is the problem? The UK was in 1900, and remains today, a prosperous country where almost all citizens can live happy and fulfilling lives. That's what makes a country great, not territorial claims or everyone else in the world doing worse. The people who support Trump wrecking the world order are doing so precisely because they aren't willing to accept that.
- insane_dreamer 9mo agoWhat kind of thinking do you mean? > The UK was in 1900, and remains today, a prosperous country where almost all citizens can live happy and fulfilling lives. I would not at all categorize the UK like that. But I do agree that what makes a country "great" is not territorial claims.
- insane_dreamer 9mo agoAll this Greenland stupidity could be an ongoing distraction from the Epstein files, Wag the Dog style. The attack on Venezuela coincidentally was the day that the DOJ was supposed to explain their redactions to Congress, which they didn't do and there hasn't been a peep since. I don't know what's in those files but I do know that Trump fought tooth and nail against Congress voting to release them, and he wouldn't have done that if they weren't damming.
- JaviLopezG 9mo agoLol Trump can't understand that he can't charge tariffs to an specific EU country. He is a big moron and his voters the little morons. Nevermind, I hope he changes his mind and set a 1000% instead 10 so we can broke relations with such a stupid government. USA is following steps that Germany already took and its citizens are responsible of its crimes.
- onewheeltom 9mo agoWow. Not The Onion.
- O1111OOO 9mo agoWhen tariffs are imposed in this way (explicitly as a punitive response to political opposition, a coercive measure), we might as well call them what they are... economic sanctions or perhaps... economic terrorism. <Cuba has entered the chat...>
- duxup 9mo agoWhy cut a deal with Trump? Few months later he will throw a fit about something else and threaten tariffs…
- cannabis_sam 9mo agoThe US is shitting their pants and dancing around in it, enjoying the warmth. None of their former friends are gonna help clean up the mess.
- lukasm 9mo agoThe more I read about it the more I think about Asabiyyah
- jijijijij 9mo agoThis post seems to be weirdly censored by HN. It got immediate traction, when it briefly hit the frontpage, yesterday. Since then, I reliably cannot find it coming from the frontpage (or 15 pages in). It's not flagged/dead, got quite a lot of upvotes, obviously, the topic is popular and highly relevant across industries as major inflection point for US-EU relations. Never noticed anything like that on HN. However, the weird thing is, I somehow still observe new human participants finding their way in (through votes and comments). So, HN is presumably heavily interfering with traffic and visibility on this one.
- Palmik 9mo agoYou can find active discussions here: https://news.ycombinator.com/active https://news.ycombinator.com/active (Including ones one flagged submissions)
- jijijijij 9mo agoOkay, but why isn't it visible in /news This post is ranked 7th in /active, now. Quickly cross-checking /active and /news, I've found no other post in /active not visible in /news. It went from 100 to 200 points, since I noticed the delisting. /active is an obscure list, I doubt, that's how many people find this post. Whatever HN is doing, it seems to be completely intransparent and selective. Some A/B-ing, or geofencing. In any case, questionable and manipulative. Like they are trying to hide interference and engineer popularity/engagement to whatever end. And you have to wonder, if this has anything to do with the fact this particular political move seems to have greatly backfired on every possible axis, apparently even within the conservative and MAGA base. May turn out as exceptionally stupid, especially before midterms. I've seen impeachment calls in /r/conservative (lol), and they are usually an extension of Trumps digestive system. Diplomacy with Europe is basically dead, France wants to trigger the EU's extortion clause and it's a sunday. Maaaybe there is active damage control going on.
- layer8 9mo agoHN moderation routinely demotes politically charged threads so that they don’t show at the top of the default front page all the time.
- commiepatrol 9mo agoBecause most European countries are US vassals. They have US bases on their soil. What kind of a sovereign nation will allow another country's military on their ground?? That means at the end of the day they will bitch and moan but eventually they will do what US tells them to do. Otherwise they'll get the same medicine that Libya, Iraq, etc etc has received for disobedience.
- tim333 9mo agoMost countries are ok with foreign troops if they are friendly and there to oppose a common enemy, basically Russia in the case of Europe. Europe doesn't fit the normal definition for vassal state. It's unlikely the US will do a Libya on Europe. I think we'll probably just wait for Krasnov to pass.
- lyu07282 9mo agoI hope that this sort of liberal denial will get more difficult once the US annexes Greenland and it would lead to some minds to finally understand the true nature of the US imperialism you are all so blind to.