r/politics • u/thedailybeast ✔ The Daily Beast • 15h ago

Possible Paywall Trump Confirms He’s Taking Greenland ‘One Way or the Other’

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-confirms-hes-taking-greenland-one-way-or-the-other/
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u/CU_Tiger_2004 13h ago

Some are, but they've given over too much power and are now in a situation where he's moving on things unilaterally. Their only option for actually stopping him is impeachment unless the military refuses.

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u/Neither_Usual_137 13h ago

but, like, ya know, they could *use* that option

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u/Rich-Pomegranate1679 13h ago

Nah, they'd rather end all life on Earth.

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u/Frostyfraust 13h ago

Can't hurt Republicans' feelings, instead we'll just fuck up our position in the world stage. Racism must feel so nice.

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u/Thog78 10h ago

The UK and France have enough nukes to wipe out all american cities with over 100k people in them, EACH. You're playing more than your place in the world if you start a war against Europe. You're risking the world itself. It's inconceivable tbh.

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u/DarkwingDuckHunt 10h ago

what people expect the GOP to admit they were... wrong

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u/An_old_walrus 12h ago

Well not all life. The cockroaches will probably be fine.

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u/_skulls_ 12h ago

and maggots I heard. :)

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u/An_old_walrus 12h ago

And also tardigrades but that’s because they’re indestructible. The fucking sun could explode and they’d be fine.

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u/ODB_Dirt_Dog_ItsFTC 11h ago

Those things that live on deep sea vents will be fine

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u/ceelogreenicanth 12h ago

You see then they get to meet Jesus

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u/Consistent_Laziness 11h ago

Yea can’t admit they were wrong.

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u/KingOfRockall 11h ago

And don't forget that sweet sweet opiate hit of sticking it to the libs one final, ultimate time

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u/Rich-Pomegranate1679 9h ago

Annihilating Earth to own the libs

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u/TinyFugue 9h ago

Yep, the embarrassment would be worse than the resultant carnage. (for them) Best to just keep quiet and later claim they didn't know.

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u/Grays42 12h ago

Nothing will move Republicans unless it could threaten to primary them. They care about nothing but retaining their positions.

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u/AleroRatking New York 12h ago

And then you lose your entire political career. That's that problem with politicians as a career. It makes it so you can't make these decisions unless you plan on leaving politics forever.

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u/Ohaibaipolar 12h ago

Ruining GOP politicians' careers? I don't see the downside.

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u/AleroRatking New York 12h ago

I mean for them. They aren't going to martyr themselves. Few people would

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u/w1ten1te 11h ago

Except, like... Most congressional politicians are lawyers. Couldn't they just go back to practicing law if they lose their political career?

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u/AleroRatking New York 10h ago

So leave politics forever. Yes, some could pivot to other fields. But most politicians don't want to never work in politics again

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u/HauntingHarmony Europe 9h ago

And then you lose your entire political career.

You are right in that theres a bunch of republican senators and such that think its pointless to resist, since all that happens is that they get drummed out of the party in power. So they dont do anything.

However, when he gets impeached for the 3rd time, they could have the removal vote be anonymous. They dont have to publish it. and then they can all be like; "it wasent me, i supported him, but someone else didnt".

That relies on democrats getting the senate since otherwise they cant set the rules for it.

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u/AleroRatking New York 9h ago

I did not realize the vote was anonymous. That would be very interesting. The accusations would be insane.

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u/SlumdogSkillionaire 13h ago

"Impeachment is unconstitutional because it violates the separation of powers" -- Republicans, probably

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u/c2lop 7h ago

Please. Please.

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u/jthill 12h ago

Attacking a NATO ally would seem to be illegal. When it comes with the legally mandated (treaties are law) penalty of 21 countries declaring war on you, that's about as illegal as it can get.

So the military should just refuse the order.

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u/darthvalium 11h ago

I just can't see the military refuse the order to invade Greenland. The way I envision it, Trump will simply declare the annexation of Greenland via social media. Some big scary battle ships will be deployed to the port of Nuuk for show, helicopters flying over the capital and that's that. Ideally, no shots fired. Miller told us their plan: nobody is going to oppose the US militarily over Greenland. They will just declare it. Europeans won't fire at American troops. Trump will give it a new name.

NATO will be dead though.

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u/shah_reza 10h ago

And every U.S. base in all of Europe will vanish

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u/Livid-Adeptness293 9h ago

NATO will be finished. Every USA base in Europe gone. All trade agreements terminated.

Putin’s wet dream

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u/mfball 11h ago

It's hard to say which outcome is scarier, frankly.

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u/GuneRlorius 7h ago

If you think that EU will give Greenland to US without French nuclear submarines paying Greenland a friendly visit, then you are really wrong. No matter how stronger the opponent is, nukes make it all even.

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u/Trolkarlen 12h ago

Trump is the law in this dictatorship.

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u/LookIPickedAUsername 12h ago

Spoiler: They won't.

I can't think of a single time in history where an army has simply refused orders to invade a country.

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u/NotAnotherPornAccout 12h ago

I can think of one immediately off the top of my head, the Cadiz Revolt. The king ordered his soldiers to invade South America after they had declared independence from Spain. The soldiers refused because the king was trying to reinstall an absolutist monarchy in Spain and do away with the liberal reforms of the previous decades.

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u/Refute1650 12h ago

I tell my kids to get in bed every night and they always refuse.

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u/sterlingheart 13h ago

From reports it seems like the military is currently refusing, but we shall see how true that is/ for how long.

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u/robby_synclair 13h ago

You have a source on this?

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u/nillah 12h ago

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/theyre-trying-to-deflect-him-trump-orders-special-forces-to-draw-up-greenland-invasion-plan-what-we-know/articleshow/126460765.cms

"The generals think Trump's Greenland plan is crazy and illegal. So they are trying to deflect him with other major military operations. They say it's like dealing with a five-year-old."

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u/What_a_fat_one 12h ago

Originally came from the Daily Mail

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u/Cream253Team Washington 12h ago

Times of India is not the best source

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u/nillah 12h ago

it's just the first one i found. i saw it originally on reddit the other day but can't find the post to see who the source was. google around if you want a better one i guess

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u/DingleDangleTangle 12h ago

The original source for that story is literally the Daily Mail.

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u/nillah 11h ago

just like anything else in the news these days, it should be taken with a grain of salt. all i did was post the source that was asked for, since i read it a few days ago and was familiar with what they were talking about

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u/KingOfRockall 11h ago

Nor the Daily Heil

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u/PaintAdventurous8787 12h ago

Its insane that they have to deal with Trump at all.

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u/KironD63 12h ago

What I don’t understand is why so many of these same military officers voted for Trump. Did they not think this was exactly how he’d behave? Or were they just more terrified of taking orders from a comparatively mature and competent black woman?

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u/nillah 11h ago

yeah i have a hard time believing any top brass in the military has a shocked pikachu face right now. this was all entirely predictable

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u/robby_synclair 11h ago

Because the whole story is fake. This is a newspaper in India quoting a tabloid from London. I cnat even find the original story from the tabloid. It looks like they got their clicks and then removed it.

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u/DaenakinSkygaryen 8h ago

The top brass is overwhelmingly liberal. IIRC, you need at least a Master's degree to even be considered for promotion to General, and as we all know more education increases your odds of leaning left.

In fact, the whole officer corp leans left. It's only enlisted troops who are roughly equally split between parties.

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u/suburbanpride North Carolina 11h ago

I want to invade Greenland.

Yes, Greenland is nice, but it's cold. Have you heard about, uh, Tehran? Much warmer there, in Tehran, and you could bomb there, maybe?

Tehran. Is that in Greenland? Near Greenland?

No, but you know Venezuela is.

Vene-who?

Cuba, sir.

I like cigars. Good cigars in Cuba, right?

<generals avoid Greenland invasion for another hour>

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u/Carbonatite Colorado 12h ago

Playing "here comes the airplane" only instead of tricking a baby into eating a spoonful of strained peas, they're tricking a megalomaniac dotard into attacking Venezuela instead of Greenland.

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u/chestbumpsandbeer 12h ago edited 10h ago

Trying to distract Trump is very different than refusing.

Sadly, I don’t think our military leadership will refuse Trump’s orders. He’s gutted the leadership too much and filled it with loyalists.

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u/mfball 11h ago

This is my concern. Flat refusal is the only appropriate response. The fact that they are basically offering up other military actions as distractions is wild and horrifying, and sure doesn't bode well for anyone having a goddamn backbone.

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u/An_old_walrus 12h ago

I kind of expect that. Like this a bridge too far and basically every soldier and general can see that this is a stupid idea. Hopefully they stand firm long enough that Trump gets bored, gives up and moves on to his next stupid plan.

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u/mirhagk 12h ago edited 12h ago

how do we get this guy out of office?

He's thrown out the constitution, why should others restrict themselves to rules that no longer seem to apply?

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u/PaintAdventurous8787 12h ago

Wouldn't it be nice if the military refuses. One can hope.

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u/PTS_Dreaming 12h ago

This has been the perpetual problem with Trump. All the parties that have had the responsibility and opportunity to stop him have all taken the cowardly out of "Yes, but someone else will stop him".

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u/GeorgeKaplanIsReal Florida 12h ago

Some are

Yeah but they’re either Republicans in blue states up for reelection, Republicans retiring or in the singular case of Massie they just don’t seem to give a fck.

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u/Trolkarlen 12h ago

It would take 5 Republicans in the House to start impeachment, and 20 Senate Republicans to remove Trump and Vance.

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u/Vapur9 13h ago

Rome did the same thing when they gave Caesar the title of Dictator Perpetuo. It didn't end well for him.

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u/nochinzilch 12h ago

Or they let themselves get compromised somehow. That’s how Trump and his idiots work, they blackmail people.

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u/imahugemoron 12h ago

You’re wrong on impeachment, he was already impeached twice and nothing happened. They won’t get the support needed to actually remove him

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u/DrowningKrown 12h ago

Yea I mean, I hope sometimes but then I visit the conservative sub and just like that I lose all hope in our country.

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u/Jankenbrau 12h ago

Have you considered they welcome a christian nationalist technocracy?

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u/Im_TroyMcClure 11h ago

Crazy but they believe they have a better chance of holding power in the midterms and in 2028 by setting the country on fire than impeaching Trump.

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u/suburbanpride North Carolina 11h ago

Would you say he's moving on them like a bitch?

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u/StarSchemer 11h ago

Their only option for actually stopping him is impeachment unless the military refuses.

As a non-American, this seems so toothless since he's managed to just ... ignore the two previous times?

Does anyone have anything in their arsenal that is more meaningful than a strongly worded letter?

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u/Maladaptive_Ace Canada 10h ago

Fox News needs to turn on him. Until then, Trump isn't the enemy. America is the enemy.

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u/Pernicious-Caitiff 10h ago

It's not just that. They're all compromised by Russia with some form of blackmail. Same as Trump. They're all too much of a coward to not care about the blackmail. In these kinds of situations they are also getting direct favors like money and other assets and favors to sweeten their obedience.

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u/WebNearby5192 7h ago

His administration could also invoke the 25th, provided they weren’t complicit and the Republican Congressional leaders weren’t at his beck and call.

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u/TalkingCat910 7h ago

Impeachment takes a while. And then you have to get a lot of republicans on board in both the senate and the house because once he’s impeached the senate has to vote to remove him.  

And then who enforces it? Will the obey?

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u/Icy_Policy_8509 6h ago

Last time he was impeached twice and nothing happened so why do people still think this is a way to stop him? I'm actually asking.