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Jan 24, 2026 - World

Before he TACO’d at Davos, Donald Trump’s vow to take Greenland by hook or crook because he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize was next level insanity prancing on the world stage. (No Donnie dear, they’re not laughing at you, they’re laughing because of you).Prompting a collective eye roll from EU leaders at Davos on Wednesday, Trump’s bellicose nonsense — “demanding” that European sovereigns bow to him on Greenland or face economic blackmail via more tariffs — revealed a shocking combination of hubris and cognitive failure. Trump is at once illustrating his ignorance of the post-WWII NATO alliance that has kept America safe for 80 years, while showcasing an inability to learn from his own mistakes by doubling down on already ruinous tariffs.Regardless of whether EU leaders ultimately placate the madman or punch him back, only harder, Trump’s threats against Greenland were a world class blunder.Putin licks his lips The only country poised to benefit from Trump’s Greenland insanity is Russia. After Vladimir Putin personally approved an operation to promote “mentally unstable” Trump (the Kremlin’s words, not mine) in the 2016 US election, weakening the U.S. and NATO looks like Putin’s payout. It may take years to unravel whether it was pre-planned between Trump and Putin, ie: treason, or simply reflects a global realignment driven by Trump and Putin’s self-interests and shared delusions of grandeur.Putin and Trump have each expressed a preference for rule by force rather than law, with Trump recently claiming he has “no need” for international law. Putin concurs. After helping a “mentally unstable” man with no comprehension of world history achieve the US presidency, Putin knows that Trump’s threats against Greenland have permanently debunked the west’s criticism of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. Greenlanders may pay the price for Trump’s insanity in the near future, but Ukrainians are paying for it today.Russia is hyperventilating with excitement. Breathlessly describing a scenario in which “one NATO member is going to attack another NATO member,” Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted earlier this week that, “It was hard to imagine before that such a thing could happen.” Lavrov said Trump’s threats against Greenland “have upended” the western concept of the “rule-based global order,” a concept Putin has long loathed.By creating a vacuum where the rule of international law and respect for sovereignty once reigned, Trump has invited all rogue actors — not just Putin — to do their worst. Even Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the man who did more than anyone to put Trump back in office, gets it. Proving that broken clocks are right twice a day, McConnell said that Trump alienating allies on Greenland and “going it alone would be strategic malpractice. Courting Russia and its GDP of $2.5 trillion … At the expense of longstanding bonds with Europe and its GDP of $27 trillion? That doesn’t even align with U.S. economic interests, let alone our values.” Glad to see the GOP still understands basic math when it wants to make a point.Trump trashes instruments of peaceDuring the first half of the 20th century, more than 100 million people died agonizing deaths over the course of two world wars. The UN charter sprang from the wreckage, with the stated determination to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind.”In Article I, the charter seeks to ‘maintain international peace and security,’ by taking “collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace” in conformity with international law.NATO complements the UN Charter by putting teeth into UN peace mandates. It backs the UN framework for collective security with military strength. NATO’s Article 5 states that if one NATO ally is attacked, every other member will consider it an “armed attack against all members.” If Trump invades Denmark’s territory, in other words, he will trigger 2.8 million active troops’ obligation to return fire- against the U.S. aggressor.Evil started WWII. Cowardice may start WWIIITrump has always shared Russia’s resentment of NATO. In 1987, after his first trip to Moscow, Trump took out full-page, anti-NATO ads, and has been at it ever since. The maddening through line today is that Congress has the power to stop Trump, but Republicans who know better are refusing to act. Short of removing Trump from office, Congress could slam shut the purse, block Trump from “running” any country outside the U.S., restrict the use of appropriated defense funds, or pass a War Powers Resolution to stop Trump from starting WWIII. But they haven’t. All we hear from the GOP, despite the obvious danger of the moment, are speeches.McConnell delivered a nice one. After he voted against the War Powers Act, he postured with a speech about Trump’s threats in Greenland: “Unless and until the President can demonstrate otherwise, then the proposition at hand today is very straightforward: (Trump is) incinerating the hard-won trust of loyal (EU) allies in exchange for no meaningful change in U.S. access to the Arctic.” He added, “(T)his is about more than Greenland. It’s about more than America’s relationship with its highly capable Nordic allies. It’s about whether the United States intends to face a constellation of strategic adversaries with capable friends … or commit an unprecedented act of strategic self-harm and go it alone.”By threatening a semi-autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, Trump issued a direct threat against Europe and NATO, deliberately weakening the alliance that fought to defeat Hitler and fascism in WWII. On Monday, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe spoke directly to the 38 percent of US adults who consume Fox/ Sinclair media Trump propaganda exclusively: “We need to ask ourselves, on both sides of the Atlantic, if we want to live in a world where democracy is recast as weakness, truth as opinion and justice as an option.”He closed with a warning: “When Europe insists on sovereignty and accountability, it is not posturing. International law is either universal or meaningless. Greenland will show which one we choose.”Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

Jan 24, 2026 - World

The fall-out from Donald Trump’s abrasive Davos speech which led Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney to call out the bullying American president, escalated on Saturday morning with a new tariff threat — a favorite Trump weapon when he feels personally aggrieved.Prior to the Davos World Economic Conference, Carney traveled to Beijing where he reached a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping to open Canada to Chinese electric vehicle importation.On Saturday morning, Trump latched on to that deal to retaliate for the humiliation he felt in Davos and, once again, he threatened another tariff.On Truth Social, he reiterated once again that China will overwhelm Canada, writing, “If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a “Drop Off Port” for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken. China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life.”He then added, “If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit with a 100% Tariff against all Canadian goods and products coming into the U.S.A.” before closing with his customary, “Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT”You can see his post here.

Jan 24, 2026 - World

A longtime Republican Party strategist is cautioning Donald Trump that his days of bulldozing opponents and receiving little to no opposition are drawing to a close, which is a harbinger of worse things to come if he loses control of Congress.As Naftali Bendavid of the Washington Post wrote on Saturday, the president is getting it from all sides as world leaders in Davos not only ignored his demands to be handed Greenland, but also pushed back, while at the same time at home, his immigration policies have given rise to massive demonstrations, including a strike that shut down the city of Minneapolis on Friday.Adding to that, the targets of his retaliation campaign are not rolling over and are instead fighting –– and suing –– back instead of being cowed.Bendavid is reporting, “Foreign leaders, meanwhile, appeared to conclude they had little to lose from openly accusing Trump of thuggery, something they had been reluctant to do before,” while adding that lawmakers like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D), California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Sen Mark Kelly (AZ-D) have openly challenged Trump's authority believing he will back down.RELATED: Trump's change in travel plans exposes White House fears he's 'in trouble': reportAccording to GOP adviser Mike Madrid, one year into his second term, the president is finding he is facing a radically changing political landscape as the polls show voters are turning against him in a stunning reversal.“I don’t think there is any question. It’s the prime minister of Canada. It’s the pope,” he told the Post. “There is this new energy when our allies are rattling the saber back, and that is in turn emboldening folks at home.”The Post reports notes that the pushback to Trump is undeniably being effective as his threats to invade Greenland if he didn't get his way quickly dissipated, and the plans to invoke the Insurrection Act at home withered quickly away in the face of resistance.That led Madrid to warn Trump, ““In the past six months, everything has changed. The fever swamp is still full force, but there is no question there are breaks. The question is, can [Trump] hold it together? And if this is happening before the midterms, imagine what happens if the Democrats take one or both houses.”You can read more here.

Jan 23, 2026 - World

Prince Harry on Friday rebuked President Donald Trump's comments dismissing NATO allies and spoke out about sacrifices among those who fought alongside the United States. The Duke of Sussex served in the British Army for a decade and did two tours in Afghanistan, among many of the service members who answered the call to serve after NATO invoked Article 5 under the mutual defense agreement following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, NBC News reported. “I served there. I made lifelong friends there. And I lost friends there. The United Kingdom alone had 457 service personnel killed,” he said. “Thousands of lives were changed forever. Mothers and fathers buried sons and daughters. Children were left without a parent. Families are left carrying the cost.”“Those sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect, as we all remain united and loyal to the defense of diplomacy and peace,” the Duke of Sussex said.In an interview Thursday with Fox News from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump questioned NATO allies' reliability, and claimed the U.S. "never needed them" and that allies sent troops to Afghanistan but "stayed a little back, a little off the front lines." Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also hit back at Trump's statement. "The American officers who accompanied me then, told me that America would never forget the Polish heroes. Perhaps they will remind President Trump of that fact," Tusk wrote on X. Several other European leaders have spoken out in response against Trump's comments, including UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer, who called the president's statements "insulting and frankly, appalling."

Jan 23, 2026 - World

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s erratic behavior on the world stage — threatening to seize Greenland from Denmark, making rambling speeches and attacking key NATO allies at Davos — was just business as usual, a prominent moderate Republican insisted.“Eleven years of this, have people not figured it out?” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) told Raw Story at the Capitol. The U.S. will benefit “if the end result is that he gets greater access, increased military presence” in Greenland, Lawler said, bemoaning the media’s “pandemonium” coverage of a head-spinning week.President Trump first told Norway’s prime minister he wanted to buy or seize Greenland, in part because the Nobel Committee passed him over for the Peace Prize he so covets, even though the committee is completely independent from the Scandinavian country’s government. Then, at the 56th World Economic Forum in Switzerland, President Trump saw Canadian PM Mark Carney win rave reviews for a pointed speech about the need for mid-sized countries to work together and not rely on America in the wake of the tariff-fueled trade wars Trump’s waged across the globe.In stark contrast to the clarity offered by the leader of America’s northern neighbor, Trump’s own remarks in Davos saw him continually confuse Greenland with Iceland; promise not to use force to seize the former but insist he wants to take it regardless; say he and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had worked out the “framework of a future deal” for increased U.S. access to Greenland; and then abuse NATO allies whose troops fought alongside the U.S. in its post-9/11 wars."We've never needed them," Trump told Fox News, adding: "We have never really asked anything of them."They'll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines."Just in the case of the United Kingdom, 457 British troops were killed in Afghanistan and another 179 in Iraq, while waging former President George W. Bush’s “global war on terror.”Denmark lost 43 service members in Afghanistan and eight in Iraq.‘Permanent damage’Now that 2026 is here, November’s midterm elections are starting to engulf everything in Washington, especially for endangered Republicans like Lawler who have tried to create distance from Trump without enraging his MAGA base. While Lawler and others in the GOP straddle that Trumpian tightrope, Democrats insist they won’t let them off the hook for letting Trump embarrass America on the world stage. “Trump's craziness has done permanent damage,” Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) told Raw Story.Boyle, who serves on NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly — a body comprised of 281 parliamentarians from 32 countries — is visiting the organization in Brussels next month. He expects to perform damage control.“This is doing permanent damage,” he stressed.In the wake of Trump’s gaffes in Switzerland, Boyle got started on international diplomacy early, after American allies freaked out and blew up his phone throughout the week. ‘President was a draft dodger’Other members of Congress have also been trying to clean up the president’s international messes, many of which predated the Davos disaster. Last week, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) “spent time with the representative from Greenland and the Danish Ambassador.” “I think [Trump’s] staff didn't inform him of our relationships with Greenland and Denmark,” Kaptur told Raw Story this week. The midwestern progressive is embarrassed that President Trump threatens allies with U.S. military might, despite what she dismissed as his own lackluster record on military matters.“Well, the President was a draft dodger,” the Congresswoman said, “so, yeah, I don't really think he has a sense of the military. I think he views it as his police force.”Trump, 79, obtained five draft deferments during the Vietnam War, four for academic reasons and one due to a claim to have bone spurs in his heels.Infamously, in 2015 and 2016, during his first run for president, he stoked controversy by deriding Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, a decorated war hero, for having been captured by Vietnamese forces. "He's a war hero because he was captured,” Trump said. “I like people that weren't captured.”Perhaps more infamously still, Trump once told shock jock Howard Stern that avoiding sexually transmitted diseases while dating in New York had been his “own personal Vietnam.”“I feel like a great and very brave soldier,” he said.