President Donald Trump has taken a bad situation and made it worse. His recent text messages to the prime minister of Norway about the U.S. administration’s desire to acquire Greenland were extraordinarily uncouth, self-defeating, and, to speak plainly, almost deranged.

On Saturday, Trump exchanged text messages with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre about America’s hope to acquire Greenland. Gahr, speaking both for himself and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, texted back in an attempt to de-escalate what has become a crisis in relations between America and its European allies.

Trump has vowed to slap a 10% tariff on goods from eight European nations (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, Britain, the Netherlands, and Finland) if they don’t support his desire to take ownership of Greenland from the Danes. The tariffs could increase to 25%, Trump said on Jan. 17.

Støre and Stubb clearly attempted to defuse the crisis in their joint messages.

“We all believe we should work to take this down and de-escalate —........

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