Panama and Greenland can do little against Donald Trump, but civil society can. Their keeping quiet out of fear is even more dangerous than Trump’s ideas alone.
Sometimes, sober headlines capture the whole grotesqueness. “Trump says he’ll seek the death penalty for ‘rapists, murderers, and monsters'” read one headline from Reuters on Christmas Eve. “Biden,Trump with different messages for Christmas,” Reuters reported on Dec. 24. Also yes, you can say that, since Joe Biden invited “quiet reflection” in a saccharine-laden video message over the holiday, saying “we’re truly blessed to live in this nation.” On Truth Social, Donald Trump threatened annexation ideas for Panama, Canada and Greenland, a “Merry Christmas” to the “far-left crazy people” in his own country and the promise of more executions.
The reactions were very brief once again; that’s just how Trump is. Furthermore, he has also just been reelected. Perhaps he means that we should work more closely with America’s neighbors and respect the judgments of the judiciary. It’s understandable that heads of government from small countries such as Panama and Greenland would react to Trump’s threats with attempts at appeasement. But the ingratiation of numerous companies from the tech industry and their wealthy bosses, who demonstrably know better, is not. The fact that they are now practicing spinal gymnastics in advance out of fear of economic damage is embarrassing, and it is even more dangerous for U.S. democracy than Trump’s ideas already are.
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