Arne O. Holm says Trump Wants to Pull Troops Out of Europe. To Use Them Against His Own People?
National Guard troops and Marines are deployed against protesters in the United States. (Photo: U.S. Northern Command, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Comment: Donald Trump continues to threaten aid for Ukraine. Instead, he sends soldiers against his own people. Whether or not he, as president, is allowed to do so is apparently besides the point.
This is a comment written by a member of the editorial staff. The views expressed in the text are the author's own.
The man who sends troops against his own is the same man who has his hand on the trigger of the world's largest nuclear arsenal.
He uses the other hand to stroke Vladimir Putin gently across the back while comparing his brutal attack on Ukraine to children fighting.
Meanwhile, in his own garden, he sends soldiers against protesters.
Peaceful demonstrations
Time and time again, he has threatened to pull American soldiers out of Europe. A President who does not even have control over his closest employees, such as Elon Musk, instead needs the soldiers to control the opinions of his fellow citizens.
Canada, one of eight Arctic states, firmly stood up against Trump and gave a clear message: the country will not be part of the former property investor's portfolio.
Now, the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, is also showing character. When threatened with arrest (because Donald Trump also issues arrest warrants like others with dictatorial ambitions), the governor replies: Bring it on. He is ready to fight.
At the same time, most European leaders continue to face Trump with their tails wagging. Trump has been clear that he does not care about Europe, that Europeans must fend for themselves.
Haven't run as much as a hot dog stand.
The response from the part of Europe that has not elected leaders with Trump as their role model is to continue brandishing their own fear and inferiority even more.
We are talking about a president who pardoned "protesters" who attacked the US national assembly and beat up cops, but who is now using soldiers against what started as peaceful protests.
He is joined on the attack by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, a man who hasn't run as much as a hot dog stand before taking over the US Army. Together, they are chasing Marines into the protest marches.
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A side track
The discussions range high and wide on whether the president and the defense minister have the legal authority for their use of military forces.
That is a side track, subordinate to the purpose of using military personnel against the civilian population in a country that continues to claim freedom and democracy in its name.
For us, it is a country with decisive influence on our own defense capability. A country that just a couple of days ago received a majority vote in the Danish parliament to establish American bases in Denmark. Like in Norway, American legislation applies.
On Danish soil.
And that is without Trump having withdrawn the threat to take over Greenland, even with force.
They are wagging their tails.
Children listen
Donald Trump's description of Russia's war against Ukraine as two children fighting is obviously absurd.
"Sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart," he added in a conversation with the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz.
The difference is that children listen to adults when they are spoken to.
In Trump's case, there are no adults at home.
The adults who could have said something sit more or less quietly as mice around Europe, terrified of angering a man who is so scared of his own people that he uses soldiers to scare them into silence.
