Trump may well think there’s something rotten in Denmark, but it’s hard to know for sure. This past week’s strange interlude about Greenland seems more like a textbook study in megalomania as it  gradually unfolds. Where did Trump get this idea about buying this inhabited, now-melting glacial island from the Danes? The first story that I heard was that it was some Danish diplomat, but god only knows where that came from.

The simple fact is, well, Trump is a simpleton; somebody told him that he could buy Greenland, and he believed whoever that was. In his tiny mind, everything is for sale – it’s just a question of price. I’m thinking that as he saw the public reaction and it began to dawn on him how idiotic he looked, he did what proto-dictators always do – they bend every effort to make the world conform with their delusions. Trump doubled down on the claim, and suddenly there emerged some weird proposal about a kind of extended lease, which is essentially what the U.S. already holds with regards to its military bases on the island. Then when the prime minister (herself an anti-immigration freak) called the idea absurd, Trump canceled his scheduled state visit to Denmark.

I know people are tempted to laugh at this episode, but we have to remind ourselves that this is the president of the United States and, as such, someone capable of tremendous harm all around the world. And I know he and his administration are deliberately trying to trigger people like me by acting strangely and saying outrageous things, but I think he is seriously showing signs of dictatorial self-aggrandizement and the autocrat version of shut-in syndrome, where all you hear is the echo of your own voice. This week Trump said, in effect, that either 80 percent of Jewish Americans are disloyal to themselves and to Israel (once again associating them with another country, as he has done before) or they are just plain stupid. Then he repeated a crackpot claim that Israelis see him as “the chosen one.” Oh … and said that he might want to be president for 10 or maybe 13 years. Somebody needs to shut that shit down.

We are dealing with a deranged right-wing nutjob in the White House. Isn’t there a constitutional amendment designed for a situation like that?  The sad fact is, people in Washington could stop this crap show, but they will not. It’s down to us.

luv u,

jp