President-elect Donald Trump has many talents, one of which is kicking over hornet nests. In one such nest-kicking exercise, he once again floated the idea of the United States buying the island of Greenland from the Kingdom of Denmark.
Now, lest our Danish friends dig out their Viking war axes and jump in their longboats to come to protect their North Atlantic territory, this is a pretty unlikely eventuality. But that hasn't stopped some Russian personalities from objecting to the proposal.
Russian media personalities have responded to President-elect Donald Trump's proposal regarding buying Greenland in a state broadcast show. In his show Evening with Vladimir Solovyov on Russia-1, host Vladimir Solovyov and others responded to Trump's idea to potentially buy Greenland and voiced their support.
The responses were interesting:
On his evening show, Solovyov and his guests largely cheered on Trump's proposal to buy Greenland. Sergey Mikheyev, one of Solovyov's pundits said that Trump's proposal is in accordance with "the American mindset" that his predecessors attempted to "disguise and hide".
"Trump simply says it straight—we are everything and you are nothing," Mikheyev noted.
"This is especially interesting because it drives a wedge between him and Europe, it undermines the world architecture, and opens up certain opportunities for our foreign policy," MIkheyev said, adding that if Trump "really wants to stop the third world war, the way out is simple: dividing up the world into spheres of influence."
Well, I wouldn't say that Trump really thinks the rest of the world - or even Russia - is "nothing." But the notion of dividing up the world into spheres of influence has a familiar ring to it. Maybe Russia and some other nations who are concerned with countering a resurgent America could meet somewhere and sign some kind of agreement, a sort of, let's say, pact. As to where to meet - how about Warsaw? It seems to me I've heard of a similar pact from Warsaw before, after all.
Oh, wait - Poland is now a NATO nation.
Not all of the Russian response was positive - even sardonically so.
Regarding Trump's motivation for buying Greenland, Elena Panina, a prominent member of Putin's United Russia party and former member of Russian State Duma, posted a new theory on Telegram: "For Russia, the implementation of Trump's plans for Greenland will have military consequences. The island will become the largest US military base. It already houses the US Thule base, which addresses missile defense gaps. But now Greenland could again become a key base for US strategic bombers."
"It would also be logical to deploy land-based medium-range missiles on the island - a reincarnation of the US Armed Forces' Iceworm project from the 1960s, but with a different technical solution. The project involved placing 600 Minuteman missiles shortened to two stages in tunnels in the Greenland ice cap."
OK, now this isn't just a talking head in the Russian media. This is a member of Putin's political party and a former Duma member, presumably someone with some influence - maybe even someone who has the ear of Tsar Vladimir I. As far as Trump having any plans to place 600 Minuteman missiles on Greenland - well, color me skeptical.
Previously on RedState: Why Would President Trump Want to Buy Greenland? There Are Reasons.
In Russia, as here in the United States, all this is just hot air. President-elect Trump, when he resumes office, won't be able to buy Greenland. For one thing, the Danes seem unwilling to sell, no matter how much Danegeld is on the table. For another thing, we can't afford it in any case. But consider this: Donald Trump has a habit of making statements like this, in effect pointing and shouting "Squirrel!" And the legacy media obediently runs off to look for the squirrel while Trump attends to his actual business of making America safe and prosperous.
Is this another such case? It seems likely.
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