Photograph Source: Office of Vice President of the United States – Public Domain

It’s all happening so fast. If they are not attacking some agency like the Department of Education or a cultural institution such as the Kennedy Center or Smithsonian Museum, they’re launching some personal vendetta against a lawyer or law firm, imposing tariffs right and left, rounding up and deporting people with green cards or rattling on about an eventual third term. It’s hard to keep track of the entirety of the shock and awe of the Trumpian assault. But every once and awhile, amidst the overwhelming noise and horrors, a phrase appears that puts everything in perspective. And JD Vance has done just that.

The Vice-President recently announced the Trumpian temporal view of where we have been, where we are, and where we are going.

This is what Vance said on March 29, 2025, at the Pituffik Space Base in Greenland:

“And, you know, one of the things I heard was, well, what about the many Danes who lost their lives in the war on terror fighting alongside the United States? Well, look, we obviously honor the sacrifice of our Danish friends in the war on terror 20 years ago, just as, for example, the French honor the sacrifice of Americans in Normandy 80 years ago. But recognizing that there are important security partnerships in the past does not mean that we can’t have disagreements with allies in the present about how to preserve our shared security for the future. And that’s what this is about.”

What is this about? It’s much more than just Greenland. It’s about the relationship between the........

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