Click here for Heather Cox Richardson's diary entry for January 17. Some highlights:
After the extraordinary pushback on President Donald J. Trump’s bizarre demand for Greenland, he has responded with what economist Paul Krugman called “a howl of frustration on the part of a mad dictator who has just realized that he can’t send in the Marines.”
Responding to Trump's threats to take Greenland militarily, troops from a number of NATO members deployed to Greenland. Trump has retaliated by threatening to slap a 10% tariff on those countries, increasing to 25% on June 1, “until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.” That has been met with outrage and indignation by the NATO members affected. There were large anti-US demonstrations yesterday in Nuuk, Greenland's capital, and Copenhagen, Denmark.
And here's a doozy:
Reuters reported today that Trump appears to be trying to set up his own organization to rival the United Nations. The administration has sent letters to leaders from several countries inviting them to be part of a “Board of Peace” led by the U.S. The board would first tackle the crisis in Gaza and then go on to take on other crises around the world.
Bloomberg reported today that the draft charter for the proposed organization makes Trump the board’s first chair and gives him the power to choose a successor. He would decide what countries can be members. Each member state would get one vote in the organization, but the chair would have to approve all decisions. The draft says that each member state has a term of no more than three years unless the chair renews it, but that limit doesn’t apply to any member states “that contribute more than USD $1,000,000,000 in cash funds to the Board of Peace within the first year of the Charter’s entry into force.” The draft suggests that Trump himself will control that money.
The DOJ has announced investigations into Minnesota governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey:
Trump’s reliance on bogus investigations to establish a narrative is well established. This tactic of launching investigations to seed the idea that a political opponent has committed crimes has been a staple of the Republican Party since at least the 1990s. As the media reported on those investigations, people assumed that there must be something to them. Trump adopted this tactic wholeheartedly, most famously when he tried to force Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to announce he was opening an investigation into Hunter Biden—not actually to open the investigation, but simply to announce it—before Trump would release to Ukraine the money Congress had appropriated it to help it fight off Russia’s invasion.
The latest polls indicate strong disapproval of Trump:
A new CNN poll released Friday shows that 58 percent of Americans believe that Trump’s first year in office has been a failure. Americans worry most about the economy, but concerns about democracy come in second. The numbers beyond that continue to be bad for Trump. 66 percent of Americans think Trump doesn’t care about people like them. 53 percent think he doesn’t have the stamina and sharpness to serve effectively as president. 65 percent of Americans say Trump is not someone they are proud to have as president.
What will the Trumpster think of next? (News this morning is that 1,500 regular-service military troops are readying for Trump's order to deploy to Minneapolis, presumably after invoking the Insurrection Act.
And on we go.
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