There is a scene in 2001’s road comedy, Rat Race, where a recently-reunited mother-daughter team runs across a woman, played deftly by Academy Award-winner Kathy Bates, on the side of the road selling caged squirrels she’d caught. The mother, played by fellow Oscar-winner Whoopi Goldberg, rolls down her window and asks Bates’ character for directions to the interstate. Bates attempts to schmooze Goldberg’s obvious gullibility and upsells what a great pet a squirrel would make.
After an exasparated back and forth, Bates gives in, realizes no deal is to be had, and gives the daughter driving the car precise directions down to the 10th of a mile, with landmarks and signs to watch for. After clearing the last marker, the two women crest a hill and careen down the other side over an open canyon, hurtling hundreds of feet towards a pile-up of previous cars at the bottom whose occupants also had denied to purchase the rodents.
As they were hurtling down the mountainside, the last series of signs they would see before wrecking the car were, in order, You. Should. Have. Bought. A. Squirrel. After a flurry of speeches, press conferences, side meetings, and more press conferences, it appears that Greenlanders, and their Danish overlords, should have bought Donald Trump’s squirrel.
The President’s remarks to the World Economic Forum in Davos were, by and large, a continuation of his First Anniversary press conference a day earlier in the White House’s Brady Room. It was a free-wheeling romp through the Id of President Donald John Trump. With regards to Greenland, after the ramped-up rhetoric and pressure campaign from the White House to acquire the island nation from Denmark for national security reasons, temporarily spooking international financial markets, President Trump changed his tune…or did he?
A short time later at a sit-down with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a reporter asked Trump whether the U.S. invasion of Greenland had been called off.
Then, at another sidebar meeting between Trump and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, former prime minister of the Netherlands, another reporter asked the President what ‘we will remember’ means.
The markets rebounded, gaining back much of their previous day’s losses, perceiving that Donald Trump was backing off of military action potentially with our NATO allies, and slapping tariffs on Denmark. Trump critics far and wide pronounced it TACO Wednesday, trying to stick to the narrative that Trump always chickens out.
Erin Burnett on CNN, a prime-time evening program, taped the Norwegian prime minister well before the news broke out late in the afternoon East Coast Time that a deal had taken shape.
Following that interview, where Burnett attempted repeatedly to walk the PM on the ledge to criticize Trump’s negotiating tactics, she brought on New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff. By my count, using AI for assistance, Kristoff has written exactly zero columns about Greenland, and one column focused on Denmark back in 2020, comparing McDonald’s workers there to here in the States. He’s not exactly the go-to guy to analyze Trump’s national security concerns in the Arctic.
Nevertheless, this was the exchange that had me laughing.
Yay, Team EU. They finally stood up to that bully, Donald Trump. Or did they?
Right before this show aired, a clip of Donald Trump’s interview with Joe Kernen on CNBC leaked online, with the President following up on a Truth Social announcement that the construct of a deal had been reached.
🚨 NEW: President Trump on Greenland deal: “Well, we have a concept of a deal. I think it’s going to be a very good deal for the United States, also for them, and we’re going to work together on something having to do with the arctic as a whole… it has to do with the security —… pic.twitter.com/IPPNMi6Fan
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) January 21, 2026
A tease, to be sure. But to many Trump critics, this came across as a walkback – an attempt to declare victory where one was not present. Instead of taking a breath, sensing blood in the water, Resistance Media went full-throated into ‘Trump capitulated’ coverage. Until…
BREAKING: Under Greenland deal, Denmark would give the United States sovereignty over small pockets of Greenlandic land where the United States could build military bases, according to three senior officials familiar with the discussion — NYT pic.twitter.com/fp1OqBxGV4
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) January 21, 2026
A few moments later, more details on the deal emerged.
🚨Breaking News: Details of the Trump-Greenland deal are starting to be revealed:
1. The U.S. will gain control of “Small small pockets of land” in Greenland
2. The U.S. will be involved in Greenland’s mineral rights
Greenland is estimated to hold reserves of natural resources… pic.twitter.com/xKTpdW32bs
— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) January 21, 2026
Virtually no pundit analyzing President Trump has ever cracked open the President’s 1987 memoir, The Art of the Deal, and days like Wednesday demonstrate why they continue to ignore that book at their peril.
Let’s start with what Donald Trump’s goals were for Greenland. I’m not talking about the rhetoric and posturing. All that is sales pitch and bluster like you’d have at a poker game. I’m talking about what Trump was looking to get out of a deal. Fortunately, that is a knowable exercise, but again, one that escapes virtually every working pundit covering the President.
On my podcast, Duane’s World, I am blessed each Tuesday to get wisdom, insight, and analysis from Jim Talent, former Senator from Missouri and current senior fellow at the Reagan Institute’s Center for Peace Through Strength. He has forgotten more about national security and foreign policy than you and I will ever know. A couple of weeks ago, he brought up the White House’s 2025 National Security Strategy, released last November, which puts a lie to the accusation that Trump is winging it on foreign policy.
From Page 5 on setting forth our vital interests (emphasis mine):
We want to ensure that the Western Hemisphere remains reasonably stable and well-governed enough to prevent and discourage mass migration to the United States; we want a Hemisphere whose governments cooperate with us against narco-terrorists, cartels, and other transnational criminal organizations; we want a Hemisphere that remains free of hostile foreign incursion or ownership of key assets, and that supports critical supply chains; and we want to ensure our continued access to key strategic locations. In other words, we will assert and enforce a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine;
Greenland isn’t just in our hemisphere; it’s technically part of North America. The narco-terrorists and cartels’ language certainly applies to the justification for what was done in Venezuela vis-a-vis Nicolas Maduro, but the part about wanting a hemisphere remaining free of hostile foreign incursion or ownership of key assets and critical supply chains, that certainly applies to Greenland. Estimates are that Greenland has upwards of $5 trillion dollars’ worth of rare earth minerals that China and Russia are already maneuvering for, and barring no action from the United States to intercede, in all likelihood, they’d be successful. The negative effects on our economy would be staggering if that happened.
From Page 15 on the region (Western Hemisphere):
A.Western Hemisphere: The Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine After years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere, and to protect our homeland and our access to key geographies throughout the region. We will deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in our Hemisphere. This “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine is a common-sense and potent restoration of American power and priorities, consistent with American security interests.
Trump’s plan for installing a Golden Dome missile defense system means it’s crucial to expand our defensive perimeter, if you will, to cover increased international navigation through the Arctic. Staging radar and other early warning systems, as well as interception capabilities, is crucial to develop in Greenland for our long-term defense, in addition to denying the CCP and Russia a foothold so close to the East Coast.
Also from Page 15 of Trump’s National Security Strategy:
The United States must reconsider our military presence in the Western Hemisphere. This means four obvious things: • A readjustment of our global military presence to address urgent threats in our Hemisphere, especially the missions identified in this strategy, and away from theaters whose relative import to American national security has declined in recent decades or years; • A more suitable Coast Guard and Navy presence to control sea lanes, to thwart illegal and other unwanted migration, to reduce human and drug trafficking, and to control key transit routes in a crisis; • Targeted deployments to secure the border and defeat cartels, including where necessary the use of lethal force to replace the failed law enforcement-only strategy of the last several decades; and • Establishing or expanding access in strategically important locations.
…
Strengthening critical supply chains in this Hemisphere will reduce dependencies and increase American economic resilience. The linkages created between America and our partners will benefit both sides while making it harder for non Hemispheric competitors to increase their influence in the region. And even as we prioritize commercial diplomacy, we will work to strengthen our security partnerships—from weapons sales to intelligence sharing to joint exercises.
…
As we deepen our partnerships with countries with whom America presently has strong relations, we must look to expand our network in the region. We want other nations to see us as their partner of first choice, and we will (through various means) discourage their collaboration with others. The Western Hemisphere is home to many strategic resources that America should partner with regional allies to develop, to make neighboring countries as well as our own more prosperous. The National Security Council will immediately begin a robust interagency process to task agencies, supported by our Intelligence Community’s analytical arm, to identify strategic points and resources in the Western Hemisphere with a view to their protection and joint development with regional partners.
This is a serious document that outlines a thoughtful review of what U.S. national security needs are for the world in which we live both now and in the immediate future. Every one of these passages trues up with the passion and persistence Donald Trump has shown from the campaign trail in 2024 through yesterday on the necessity of acquiring Greenland.
And then, in the last excerpt from the 2025 NSS:
Non-Hemispheric competitors have made major inroads into our Hemisphere, both to disadvantage us economically in the present, and in ways that may harm us strategically in the future. Allowing these incursions without serious pushback is another great American strategic mistake of recent decades. The United States must be preeminent in the Western Hemisphere as a condition of our security and prosperity—a condition that allows us to assert ourselves confidently where and when we need to in the region. The terms of our alliances, and the terms upon which we provide any kind of aid, must be contingent on winding down adversarial outside influence—from control of military installations, ports, and key infrastructure to the purchase of strategic assets broadly defined.
The terms of the deal, as they’re leaking out, align perfectly with what Trump’s vision for the Western Hemisphere has been since he began seeking the presidency in 2023. The policy is rock solid, and dare I say, Reaganesque. The presentation and/or the negotiations? That’s what tends to make people crazy and missing the point. Trump wanted exactly what the deal purports to deliver – an avenue into sharing and developing the mineral rights, pockets of land that become sovereign U.S. territory to build three new military bases with no outside interference, has no sunset provision where we have to give the land or mineral rights back to Denmark, protects shipping and fishing lanes in the Arctic from Chinese and Russian aggression, and blocks off both adversaries from rare earths they so desire. And the U.S. does not have to pay $100,000 to every Greelander and foot the bill for governance and welfare of the entire island nation’s populace.
That’s what Trump wanted. What he asked for was all of it – the island, land rights, mineral rights, abdication by Denmark. That’s what you do when you negotiate. You don’t begin with what your bottom line is. You ask for the Moon and the stars, and haggle until you get something you want. Did Donald Trump really want to send Marco Rubio to be the invader general and governor of the 51st state of Greenland? Of course, not. Did people take him seriously? Ridiculously so, enough to want to invoke the 25th Amendment.
Donald Trump, if this deal finalizes as advertised, will have improved U.S. national security, closed the real estate deal for the forward edge of the coming missile defense shield, blocked off our two chief adversaries from expansion in the Arctic, and yet somehow, NATO still stands. Seems like a pretty good day’s work all the way around.
Our good friend Bonchie over at RedState, however, throws shade at the proposed deal.
Saying this is gonna trigger some people, but this is just the NATO Secretary reiterating what the 1951 pact already allows and calling it a compromise.
Now, maybe there’s some even newer framework, but if this is what it is, it’s an off-ramp and nothing more. https://t.co/E5zLUgUGwt
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) January 21, 2026
He makes a fair charge in a series of tweets that Wednesday’s alleged deal is little more than window dressing, and to back his claim, this is the relevant section of the 1951 Defense of Greenland agreement between Denmark and the United States currently in force:
Article II.
In order that the Government of the United States of America as a party to the North Atlantic Treaty may assist the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark by establishing and/or operating such defense areas as the two Governments, on the basis of NATO defense plans, may from time to time agree to be necessary for the development of the defense of Greenland and the rest of the North Atlantic Treaty area, and which the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark is unable to establish and operate singlehanded, the two Governments in respect of the defense areas thus selected, agree to the following:
(1) The national flags of both countries shall fly over the defense areas.
(2) Division of responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the defense areas shall be determined from time to time by agreement between the two Governments in each case.
(3) In cases where it is agreed that responsibility for the operation and maintenance of any defense area shall fall to the Government of the United States of America, the following provisions shall apply:
(a) The Danish Commander-in-Chief of Greenland may attach Danish military personnel to the staff of the commanding officer of such defense area, under the command of an officer with whom the United States commanding officer shall consult on all important local matters affecting Danish interests.
(b) Without prejudice to the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark over such defense area and the natural right of the competent Danish authorities to free movement everywhere in Greenland, the Government of the United States of America, without compensation to the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark, shall be entitled within such defense area and the air spaces and waters adjacent thereto:
(i) to improve and generally to fit the area for military use;
(ii) to construct, install, maintain, and operate facilities and equipment, including meteorological and communications facilities and equipment, and to store supplies;
(iii) to station and house personnel and to provide for their health, recreation and welfare;
(iv) to provide for the protection and internal security of the area;
(v) to establish and maintain postal facilities and commissary stores;
(vi) to control landings, takeoffs, anchorages, moorings, movements, and operation of ships, aircraft, and water-borne craft and vehicles, with due respect for the responsibilities of the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark in regard to shipping and aviation;
(vii) to improve and deepen harbors, channels, entrances, and anchorages.
It seems like the U.S. already has a lot of latitude for basing, except, of course, for the mandatory cooperation and consultation with the Danish-appointed commander and flying dual flags part. It’s unworkable in the present day, because Golden Dome simply won’t exist if the Danes have to be consulted on each step of the construction process.
And then, of course, is this part to which Trump objected.
(c) The Government of the Kingdom of Denmark reserves the right to use such defense area in cooperation with the Government of the United States of America for the defense of Greenland and the rest of the North Atlantic Treaty area, and to construct such facilities and undertake such activities therein as will not impede the activities of the Government of the United States of America in such area.
Yeah, that’s not going to work if we’re talking about putting in the most sophisticated missile defense tracking and defense system ever built next to a new Lego factory. And then, of course, the 1951 Pact said nothing about mineral rights that weren’t known at the time or sought out by hostile forces increasing activity in the Arctic. The terms of this new proposed deal address all of Trump’s stated concerns fairly neatly with very little, if any, side effects and overhead a wholesale annexation of Greenland would present.
Which takes me back to the know-nothings on TV. Erin Burnett had on another guest also not noted for her Greenland expertise – Rep. Madeleine Dean from Pennsylvania’s 4th.
“It is insane. It makes no sense.” Rep. Madeleine Dean, who just returned from Denmark, tells @ErinBurnett that Trump’s Greenland push has sparked real fear: “Children in Greenland go to bed at night, anxious, fearful, sleepless, worried that the Americans might attack them.” pic.twitter.com/qIdkkAssZp
— Erin Burnett OutFront (@OutFrontCNN) January 21, 2026
Those poor Greelandic children, having to go to bed anxious and fearful that Marco Rubio is coming like Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders. What nonsense. If any child has PTSD, it’s the kids at Cities Church in Saint Paul after Don Lemon and the anti-ICE goon squad interrupted Sunday services.
If any Greenlandic youth is anxious and sleepless, it’s because their parents, and their Danish overlords thousands of miles away in Europe, just cost them $100,000 dollars each by refusing Donald Trump’s ludicrous overture meant as an attention-getter. Instead, they winding up with nothing while Trump flies back to Washington after cashing in another winning hand.
They should have bought a squirrel.
You should have BOUGHT a squirrel! pic.twitter.com/5twUOwLKi5
— rbar (@reneebarnes626) November 19, 2025
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