Mette Freideriksen signed the visitor's book at Chequers, Keir Starmer's official country residence on Thursday, with the words, "We'll get by with a little help from our friends".

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The Prime Minister of Denmark - a NATO member-state whose autonomous territory of Greenland is the apple of Donald Trump's eye - had cause to be light-hearted.

Freideriksen's UK visit came just after the TACO president (Trump Always Chickens Out) had rolled up in Davos and promptly retreated from his bellicose threats to seize Greenland militarily and to penalise selected European governments with new tariffs for their insolence.

Trump says he now has a better plan for American security interests in Greenland although saving face is a more credible priority.

It had been a tawdry affair with Trump's sabre-rattling accompanied by juvenile social media posts replete with AI-altered maps depicting the Stars and Stripes territory extending south from Greenland, through Canada, the US, Mexico and Venezuela.

In an infantile rant to the Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, Trump justified his planned annexation of Danish territory via SMS: "Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace."

Needless to say, the government of Norway controls neither Greenland, nor the Nobel Committee.

At no time since the Second World War, has a Western leader, much less a US Commander-in-Chief with unrivalled firepower at his fingertips, promised such imminent lethal force against democratic partners.

While Trump has normalised such outrages, he has had help from mute world leaders terrified at being singled out for punishment.

What they consider prudent diplomacy has become enabling silence, effectively encouraging a narcissistic strongman to........

© Canberra Times