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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsInteresting and unnerving analysis of what could happen if Piggy invaded Greenland:
From (ick) Facebook, Brent Molnar https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61569521527172
If the United States follows through on the threat to invade Greenland, we need to be crystal clear about what happens the next morning. This is not a real estate transaction or a routine military exercise. It is the geopolitical equivalent of pulling the pin on a grenade in a crowded elevator. The moment American boots hit the ground in Nuuk to seize territory from a fellow NATO member, the world as we know it ends. The consequences will not be temporary sanctions or angry letters. They will be total, permanent, and devastating.
The first domino to fall is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization itself. NATO is built on the sacred promise of Article 5, that an attack on one is an attack on all. If the U.S. attacks Denmark, we are not just breaking the treaty; we are triggering it against ourselves. NATO dissolves instantly. The alliance that kept the peace in Europe for 75 years evaporates, leaving the continent to rearm and realign against the new aggressor across the Atlantic. We don't just lose an ally; we create a unified enemy.
The military repercussions will be swift and humiliating. Europe will immediately demand the closure of every U.S. military base on the continent. Ramstein in Germany, Aviano in Italy, Lakenheath in the UK, all gone. Our ability to project power into the Middle East and Africa vanishes overnight. We will be evicted from the very soil we helped liberate and defended for decades, forced to retreat to our own shores as a fortress nation, isolated and friendless.
Then comes the economic nuclear option. The European Union is the largest single market in the world, and they will weaponize it. Europe will likely move to call in U.S. debt and dump their dollar reserves, sending the value of our currency into a death spiral. The U.S. economy, which relies on the dollar being the global reserve currency, will collapse. Inflation will make the post-COVID spikes look like a rounding error. Your savings will be worthless before the ink dries on the invasion orders.
Corporate America will face an extinction event. U.S. companies will be expelled from the European market. Apple, Google, McDonald's, and Tesla will see their assets seized or their operations banned. Trillions of dollars in market capitalization will be incinerated in minutes. The stock market will not just crash; it will close. We are talking about the complete de-globalization of American industry, cutting us off from the wealthiest consumers on the planet.
The skies will go silent. European aviation authorities will almost certainly ground all Boeing jets and ban U.S. airlines from their airspace. Transatlantic travel will cease. If you are in Paris or Berlin, you are stuck there. The logistical arteries that feed our supply chains will be severed. We will be cut off from European medicine, machinery, and technology. We will be an island nation in the worst possible sense.
The cultural isolation will be just as stinging. The International Olympic Committee and FIFA will have no choice but to bar the United States from competition, just as they did with Russia. There will be no World Cup matches in New Jersey. There will be no Team USA in the Olympics. We will be treated as a pariah state, unwelcome on the global stage, forced to watch the world celebrate without us.
For individual Americans, the consequences will be personal and painful. Visa-free travel to Europe will end immediately. Americans currently living or working in Europe will lose their legal protections and residency status. They will become persona non grata, potentially facing deportation or internment. The "blue passport" that used to open every door will suddenly be a red flag at every border crossing.
This is the end of trust, and it does not reset. You cannot invade a democratic ally and then say "my bad" four years later. The psychological break will be permanent. Europe will realize that the United States is no longer a partner but a predator. They will build their own defense architecture, their own financial systems, and their own alliances that specifically exclude us. The West will continue, but the United States will no longer be part of it.
Invading Greenland is not a show of strength; it is an act of national suicide. We are trading our reputation, our economy, and our security for a frozen island and a handful of minerals we can't even process. The price of this real estate deal is everything we built over the last century. If we cross this line, there is no going back. We will be the lonely superpower, ruling over nothing but our own decline.
kentuck
(115,135 posts)And who wants that more than anyone else in the world?
Putin.
Read between the lines.
Scrivener7
(58,407 posts)fills my mind, and it literally sickens me.
Will we need to be ruined in order for our own people (my own brother is included in that) to realize what they have done to us?
I am just praying for some light in the darkness.
Fiendish Thingy
(22,097 posts)Corporate America will face an extinction event. U.S. companies will be expelled from the European market. Apple, Google, McDonald's, and Tesla will see their assets seized or their operations banned. Trillions of dollars in market capitalization will be incinerated in minutes. The stock market will not just crash; it will close. We are talking about the complete de-globalization of American industry, cutting us off from the wealthiest consumers on the planet.
This would cause a corporate uprising, with CEOs storming the White House with torches and pitchforks, demanding Trumps head on a platter. If they couldnt convince the Republican goat rodeo in congress to remove him immediately, all eyes would turn to Vance and the multimillionaires in the cabinet to enact the 25th amendment (they only need 13 out of 25, so the die hard loyalists like Bondi and Hegseth could fuck right off), which would buy enough time for the house and senate to find their spines.
Lets just hope the Republicans send an emissary (I nominate Lindsey Graham!) to have that heart to heart, Goldwater to Nixon chat, before things get to the no-turning-back stage.
Thanks for posting - I just wish the author had a better platform than Facebook.
angrychair
(11,713 posts)But Republicans are all in on him. Literally nothing, even starting a war with Europe and the rest of the world, will matter at all. Not even a little. They will twist it to be all Europe's fault and demand we nuke them or some crazy shit.
Also, don't think for a second the military wouldn't do it because they are 100% behind him too. It's a giant death cult to end the world.
They desperately want it to happen.
Fiendish Thingy
(22,097 posts)In the past week, we have seen numerous Republicans defect and pushback against Trump on various issues in both floor votes and public statements, including about Greenland.
If the EU starts selling off its treasury bonds and the US dollar is on the verge of collapse, not to mention seizing/banning US companies, donations to republicans will evaporate, and the pressure from the financial elites for congress to rein Trump in or remove him altogether will be tremendous.
Lets take Musk, for example- If Tesla is blocked from doing business in Europe, Starlink is shut down, and X is banned, what do you think his position will be?
Now ask Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Peter Theil, Jamie Dimon, etc. Their supplication to Trump will flip in a heartbeat if European retaliation becomes a bigger threat to their bottom line than Trumps wrath.
There are only a small number of true die hard Trump cultists among Republicans in congress and among the financial elites- most are just opportunists or terrified scaredy-cats. When the heat ramps up, they will flee like the cowardly rats we always knew them to be.
Up to this point they could shrug off Trumps worse impulse because it didnt impact them personally and business/politics was still soaring in their favor, but an invasion of Greenland would end that overnight.
Hopefully they will use their leverage before its too late for them or us.
PS- you must have missed the reports yesterday that JCOS pushed back on Trump order to develop plans for an invasion of Greenland, saying it would be illegal, as well as past reports of National Guard COs stating they would refuse to order troops to use force against Americans (Oregon commander specifically, but others made similar comments).
Yes, some have followed orders of questionable legality, using justifications from Trumps Yes Men JAGs as legal cover, but I think you do a great disservice to both the military and the general morale of the resistance by using such a broad brush to smear the entire armed forces. They arent 100% behind Trump, and your giant death cult to end the world comment is way over the top.
PPS- you might want to go furniture shopping for a new chair, as the one youve got seems to be clouding your perceptions.
PPPS- Breathe. Were each going to need all the stamina we can muster to get through this.
dpibel
(3,792 posts)By what mechanism would Congress "remove him immediately"? I'm pretty sure there's no mechanism for Congress to remove a president other than impeachment. Perhaps you believe that an impeachment and removal could take place with some sort of instantaneity, but I know of no history that supports that proposition.
As for the 25th, the VP assumes the presidency immediately upon the submission to Congress of the declaration of inability.
But then, when the president submits a counterdeclaration (and surely you do not believe that would not be instantly forthcoming from Miller), the president is president again and the same crew has to resubmit the declaration of inability and then Congress has to decide the issue. That's all supposed to happen on an accelerated timeline. You may be right that it would happen very quickly.
But the article to which you are responding says the dire results would be truly instantaneous. And irreversible.
Anyway, as you are wont to chide people for not explaining how, for instance, Trump might cancel elections, I'm sure you have some basis for asserting that Congress can immediately remove a president. I eagerly anticipate being educated.
Coldwater
(962 posts)In days gone by

Timewas
(2,650 posts)This would be the end of our country.
Glaisne
(625 posts)The U.S. already has bases at troops in Greenland per a 1951 treaty with Denmark. None of the other things stated will happen either. Some new treaty or other bargain will be struck and Trump will essentially get away with it like he always does. What you describe is hypothetical and more fantasy than reality.
Ocelot II
(129,180 posts)which provides everything we need WRT national security. While it's unlikely that Trump will actually try to take over Greenland using military force, I wouldn't put anything past him. This piece describes a worst-case scenario in which there is a military invasion, which would be resisted by Denmark (and they've already said they'd do that), which would also mean the invocation of NATO Article 5, with the likely results as described. Again, not my analysis, but food for thought. There are a lot of things we didn't think Trump would do that he has done.
ancianita
(42,911 posts)the Law of the Land, and the US military has a sworn duty top to bottom to refuse unlawful orders per the US Constitution and all U.S. treaties.
If "none of this is going to happen" it's for those reasons, not those you opine on.
Fiendish Thingy
(22,097 posts)bluescribbler
(2,477 posts)During the Cuban Missile Crisis, an American diplomat offered to show Charles DE Gaulle the classified evidence which underlay the US response. His response, "I trust the American President."
I fear those days are gone already.
Fords Crackpipe
(136 posts)The people of Greenland & Canada should launch a class-action lawsuit against the US for tRump's terror campaign against us.
tRumps invasion threats cause emotional harm, loss of sleep & loss of real estate value in the billions of $ b/c no one want's to move to a country that might be invaded.
The people of Greenland & Canada should launch a class-action lawsuit against the US for tRump's terror campaign against us.
— (@fordskrackpipe.bsky.social) 2026-01-12T16:41:54.207Z
tRumps invasion threats cause emotional harm, loss of sleep & loss of real estate value in the billions of $ b/c no one want's to move to a country that might be invaded.
Aristus
(71,680 posts)Trump is the perfect reflection of the dipshit hillbilly redneck morons who voted for him: stupid and easily manipulated. Imagine hating a black President, and the thought of a female, or woman of color President so much, that you would rather see the United States utterly destroyed. I can't even comprehend that level of fecklessness.
flashman13
(2,052 posts)Fozzledick
(3,906 posts)angrychair
(11,713 posts)Or joke about it. But at the same time I don't know what else anyone can do. There is no preparation that will help you here unless you are already off grid and self sufficient and have the skill set and health to survive if and when society collapses...and it will.
Other than that it's a death sentence for most people. Most people will starve or die of thirst within a couple weeks. Especially in urban areas.
Get you a way to purify water and seeds to grow your own food. Beans and vegetable-based sources of protein are important because meat will become very hard to get unless you already have animals of your own.
Be safe out there.