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Greenland, Trump and Sinful Occupation · Mark and Pete

• 0:05
  Greenland, Trump and sinful occupation.
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  Welcome to Mark and Pete. This episode we look at
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  Greenland geopolitics and Donald Trump once again being laughed
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  at. Yes, this is Mark and Pete 2
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  blokes with half an opinion. Now here's our first thought.
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  On thin ice, if hell freezes over, the devil will skate.
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  Yet heat from a hot head melts it at fast rate.
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  So stay cool and calm and just twirl a Figure 8.
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  Then show you're in control and won't slip to your fate.
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  Well, yes indeed. Well, Greenland, Denmark, what
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  is your next move? Yes, Donald Trump's push to
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  acquire Greenland is gaining backlash not just in fact from
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  Republicans in Congress, but also from Denmark and many
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  European countries. Well, this is really around the
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  focus of Greenland, which has grown into a more broader
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  discussion over Trump's administration with the use
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  effectively to have unilateral use of military force along with
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  diplomatic and economic coercion.
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  Mr. Pete, I say that this is now potentially A hotbed, dare I
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  say, in a very cool part of the world.
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  What say you about what Donald Trump is trying to achieve here?
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  Well, we're talking first specifically about what he wants
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  to achieve with having control over Greenland.
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  Well, he may not make it the 51st state, but having complete
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  control is what he's after. It seems to me an obvious, a
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  sort of a no brainer for geopolitics at the moment.
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  We in Europe, we in Britain need a strong America to take control
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  of that region. Why?
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  Well, if you, if you don't look at an Atlas or better at a globe
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  as you can see it better. If you do, it's not so obvious
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  why it's so important. Strategically, it's very
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  important. It's all part of the same sort
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  of landmass as the it's part of the Americas more than more than
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  Europe. It's certainly part of the
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  Arctic landmass, yes. Interestingly, one of its
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  islands in in green and there's a little island off it which is
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  half owned by Canada. So there's actually a land
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  border with Canada there, but that's just a small little bit
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  of trivia. What's interesting about
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  Greenland is its position means that as China has ambitions to
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  come over the pole to get to Europe much quicker and as the
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  the ice is predicted to melt there to allow that to happen,
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  Greenland will be a good strategic base on the way.
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  Certainly flights would he go over it and in fact, Donald
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  Trump will know about him very well because if he flew from New
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  York over to Asia anywhere like that, he'd go over Greenland.
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  So it's it's a it's a very good strategic position to have China
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  itself did a few years ago attempt to buy up the port there
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  in in Greenland port as in the seafaring area, not drink.
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  And just to clear that up for you, Mr. Mark now and America
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  had to pressure the. Bottle.
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  Yeah, the US government had to pressure the Danish government,
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  which is in charge of Greenland, to stop it happening where they
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  don't want to have to go through all that.
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  So strategically you're talking about the IT being good
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  strategic position. Yes, militarily, there's an air
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  base. They're all very important, but
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  just first of all, I I think this is probably the main reason
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  for America wanting it and Trump pushing for it, is that
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  strategic use in terms of trade routes.
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  Yeah. Well, there's also something
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  else as well. One word, minerals.
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  Well, let's be honest, Greenland is packed with them.
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  We won't go into all of them, but again, that's another aspect
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  of this. So if you think about the
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  strategic positioning of Greenland, yes, but also the
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  resources that it offers. And I think that that's rather
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  crucial for a world that is so devoid of minerals.
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  We've seen that in the the gameplay with Ukraine in terms
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  of the minerals that Trump is trying to sort of negotiate on
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  behalf of Ukraine and maybe others.
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  But the fact of the matter is the world needs those very
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  valuable resources. So I think that there's another
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  thing as well. Now Trump has really made some
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  claim about wanting to buy Canada, Greenland, many other
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  places. Is this something where it's
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  just a distraction? Because maybe really what he's
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  trying to do is, and we've seen this, you know, with Venezuela,
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  you know, where he's sort of gone in.
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  He's taken over and he's taken, you know, particular tankers
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  with oil. You know, naturally he's already
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  extracted certain leaders. Can we expect that maybe he'll
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  go even further? Well, I, I think you're right in
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  saying it. It's part of his distraction the
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  the true real use of Greenland. We've we've just talked about
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  those two areas, minerals and trade routes.
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  There is the, and I mentioned the, the air base there.
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  The the air that air base really isn't enough for how Trump sees
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  security for the US. So an extension basically of his
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  golden Dome as he calls it's similar to the Iron Dome in
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  Israel. Being able to shoot down rockets
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  that are that are coming over is part is part of that.
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  But there's you can go further than that in terms of PR, which
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  is what Trump is really a master of.
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  Yes, it can. It could well be a distraction
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  for other things that he's doing, For example, aiming for
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  regime change without being accused of doing it in the Iran,
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  you know, without being responsible because you want the
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  rebellion within Iran to be the people who take responsibility
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  for it. But supporting it and trying to
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  get prepared for possible invasion.
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  There certainly being military strikes or strikes or possibly
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  an abduction of the leadership there.
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  Yeah, it needs a big distraction, people getting all
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  angry. But more than a distraction,
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  it's it's APR exercise in the about who Trump is.
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  He's the madman, but not just where small, not small, but less
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  powerful countries like Venezuela are afraid of the
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  Europeans are scared of him. That's the that's the impression
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  he's trying to give such that he can get his way in military
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  conflicts like like possibly in Iran, but in Ukraine as well.
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  You know, he's building up this reputation of being someone who
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  is. Yeah, maybe he's irascible and
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  unpredictable. Yes, but he really does do what
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  he says, that people are scared of him, so scared of him and
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  therefore America. So it's, I, I believe it's all
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  part of brand building. Well, I think it may be.
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  And in fact, as we have already seen, interestingly, that Keir
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  Starmer, who you know, has been the leader of the United
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  Kingdom, seems to have very little influence.
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  If you look at the history of the United Kingdom's
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  relationship with the United States, it's been a lot closer.
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  Whereas unfortunately, in this particular occasion, it couldn't
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  be further from the truth. But whilst I agree with you in
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  terms of the the sort of the brand building, as you say, the
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  man who is almost unpredictable in his own mind, it comes back
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  to one final point in my opinion, which is what about on
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  the home front? Because has Donald Trump got
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  enough Republican support to pass these sort of measures
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  through the Chamber of Congress? And I think that's really
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  important, isn't it? Because it clearly he can play
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  that game externally for those international leaders.
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  But it's on the home front. Do you think he has enough
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  strength? Well, this may be why he's
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  trying to push it through because in Congress and the
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  House of Representatives, he at the moment the Republicans have
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  a majority of 1. So it's very difficult to get
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  things very. Difficult.
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  So it may be that he's trying to get it done quickly.
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  So yeah, all decisions are made before they possibly lose
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  control of the house. But I actually think there is a
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  bigger strategy at play here because it all plays in
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  together. You see, just moving away from
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  Greenland for a moment, although, as I said, Greenland
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  plays into it. The the taking of Maduro from
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  Venezuela and the taking of the oil there.
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  You know, they say Trump says, well, America's not going to
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  actually, he's not stealing the oil, obviously.
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  Heaven forfend. No, what they're doing is
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  they're going to sell it and give the money to Venezuela to
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  build themselves up. Yeah, but that still means they
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  have the oil and it does mean overall that you can bring down
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  oil prices, the fuel prices in America this year, well, well
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  before the November elections. So that could give him actually
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  an increase in Congress, which means he can get the rest of his
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  agenda through. I think he's joined up thinking
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  and, and, and here here's the point, you know, the, some of
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  the EU leaders and in fact, other commentators, particularly
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  those on the left, are really laughing at Trump and ridiculing
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  him. I mean, he did once accidentally
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  say Iceland instead of Greenland.
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  But we've all done that, haven't we?
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  But you know, they, yes, it seems that their, their hatred
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  for both means that they can't see that there could possibly a
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  strategy be a strategy. It must be that he's a lunatic.
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  Well, look, as I'll hand back to you as you close out, do you
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  think that Greenland will become basically a hotbed or do you
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  think that this political issue will eventually cool down?
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  What I think is that Trump will get his way, the EU will is
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  heading on its way to irrelevance anyway, and they
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  will kowtow to Trump and America's demands because they
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  are the real power. You see, strategic, strategic
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  thinking like Trump's looks a bit rude now to European eyes,
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  but that in the long term, this use of power to bring about
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  hegemonies such that you can have peace is actually the
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  wisest action of all.