In the five days since the U.S. kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and began to “run” the country—an operation that President Trump said heralded a new “Donroe Doctrine”—Trump and his administration have threatened to attack, invade, or fully colonize four countries: Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, and Greenland. If you extend the timeframe to a week, you could add Iran to the list. If you pull back a full year, it would include Canada, America’s northern neighbor—and arguably closest ally.

Greenland, which is a Danish territory—and therefore protected by the NATO alliance—seems most at risk. Trump has made seizing the resource-rich country in the north Atlantic a priority since the start of his second term. “The United States should have Greenland as part of the United States. There’s no need to even think or talk about this in the context that you’re asking, of a military operation,” White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday. “Nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.” The threat seems serious: An official statement from the administration said it wasn’t ruling out “military action” to acquire the island, even though doing so would instantly dissolve NATO and risk war with America’s European allies.

There is some strategic coherence to the administration’s belligerent approach to foreign policy. It suggests a........

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