In the past few days, Donald Trump turned the US presidency into a tool for his personal glory and vengeance. On Saturday, he threatened to impose tariffs of up to 25% on a bloc of European countries until Denmark agrees to sell Greenland to the US. The next day, Trump texted Norway’s prime minister, saying his failure to win the Nobel peace prize was one of the reasons he’s intent on seizing control of Greenland. After being snubbed for last year’s award, Trump said he no longer felt the need “to think purely of peace”.

By Tuesday morning, as European leaders continued to absorb the shock of Trump’s threats and insults, the president posted an AI-generated meme that showed him planting a US flag on the island, flanked by his vice-president and secretary of state. “Greenland. US Territory. Est. 2026,” the image said. (Trump shared another image, also apparently edited by AI, that showed him sitting alongside a map of the US that includes Canada, Greenland and Venezuela, as he spoke with European leaders assembled at the White House.) Later on Tuesday, when he was asked at a press conference how far he was willing to go to acquire Greenland, Trump responded tersely: “You’ll find out.”

On Wednesday, after a bombastic speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump backed away from his threat to impose tariffs on European countries and said he had reached “the framework of a future deal” on Greenland with the Nato secretary general. In other words, Trump began to defuse a global crisis of his own making.

Over the past year, the world watched Trump’s second term devolve into a brazen campaign of self-enrichment. He has exploited the presidency to make himself and his family richer, bullied allies and enemies alike into accepting his coercive and erratic foreign policy, and sullied the US’s image around the globe.

Trump’s campaign to seize Greenland from Denmark is the endpoint of his transactional and corrupt approach to governing since he returned to office: an attempt to use the immense financial and military power of the American state to strong-arm a property deal that he believes will enhance his legacy. What........

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