A woman waves a Greenlandic flag as people attend a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's demand that the Arctic island be ceded to the U.S., calling for it to be allowed to determine its own future, in Nuuk, on Saturday.Marko Djurica/Reuters

Prime Minister Mark Carney said he is “concerned” about the escalation. It was a calm word for this particular bout of Donald Trump’s insanity.

The President of the United States insists he will take Greenland from Denmark – and the European Union – and now says that he will use heavy tariffs to try to coerce allies into handing over the territory. If you take him at his word, it’s worth noting that he has said he’d be prepared to invade an ally, too.

It’s a surefire way to break the U.S. from Europe, to start a trans-Atlantic trade war, to rip the North Atlantic Treaty Organization apart, and to make the world much more chaotic and dangerous. Not least for Canada.

If Mr. Trump breaks the trans-Atlantic alliance, Canada will be awkwardly placed in the middle between its long-standing allies and the newly avaricious U.S. superpower on whom it depends for domestic security.

Greenland has become the epicentre of the growing rift between Europe and the U.S.

And........

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