Donald Trump is a monster, and a stupid one at that – as his foul slander of British soldiers who served in Afghanistan shows. His bid to seize loyal ally Denmark’s sovereign territory; his norm-shattering, profoundly ignorant speech in Davos last week; and his contemptuous bullying of UK and EU leaders have definitively demonstrated what an existential, unappeasable, unspeakable menace the 47th US president truly is.

All the post-Davos talk is about what the UK, the EU and Nato must do in future to resist and constrain Trump, and how to counter his attempts to demolish the global rules-based order. Yet a sense of proportion is required. If his policies and posturing are removed from the equation, it’s clear that the unedifying but familiar postwar world of great power rivalries and de-facto spheres of influence remains largely unchanged. Continuities outnumber ruptures. It’s also clear this crisis is not ultimately one Europe can solve.

Trump and Trump alone is the principal, pressing problem. And Trump is a made-in-America monster. It’s up to Americans to un-make him and set things straight – which they surely will, sooner or later.

The still-festering Greenland crisis is the latest example – after Venezuela, Gaza and Iran – of Trump’s neo-imperial overreach. If he honestly wanted to boost Arctic security, he only had to ask. Denmark is already treaty-bound to accept more, bigger US bases. Nato allies and the EU are keen to help. But what Washington’s kraken really wants is to gobble up the entire territory and its resources, regardless of........

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