Trump's Greenland Tantrum Sinks Stocks

By David Shuster

In order to recognize the spectacle now afflicting the American people, you don’t have to consult your favorite therapist, psychiatrist, or mental health expert. Just look at the U.S. stock tickers. The U.S. markets just suffered their worst trading losses in several months. Why? Because Donald Trump threw a temper tantrum at Europe over Greenland and threatened new tariffs.

That’s Right. President Trump has once again reminded the world that the most dangerous thing in Washington D.C. is not ideology, foreign enemies, or even corruption, but rather a sulking child with access to the levers of economic power.

The market rout erased billions of dollars. Not because America is weak, but because Trump is erratic. Trump lashed out after Europe – responding to his threats to invade Greenland – dispatched more troops, planes, and ships to the Danish territory.

Trump keeps governing as if the presidency were a combination poker game and reality TV show. Trade policy, in his hands, is not a matter of economics but of Trump’s mood. A nation or trading bloc that displeases him? Trump threatens tariffs. A leader of France or Norway fails to flatter Trump sufficiently and praise his Greenland vision? Trump rattles sabers. A headline that wounds Trump’s vanity? The global economy must pay.

This is not strategy. It is emotional incontinence.

Economists, and even the kids learning basic economics in high school, understand that markets thrive on predictability and clear rules. Trump offers neither. He lurches from threat to retreat, from bombast to denial, leaving investors, allies, and citizens alike wondering if tomorrow’s policy will be announced by briefing, tweet, or late-night impulse. The result is the economic equivalent of seasickness. It is constant and debilitating.

What makes all of this even more grotesque is that the losses are piling up not merely because of Trump’s incompetence. His toddler-like lack of emotional control is also crashing markets. Trump does not argue about whether the U.S. really needs to “own Greenland” to build a missile defense system or extract its minerals and precious metals. Denmark and Greenland say the U.S. can build as many bases and deploy as much military equipment as Trump wants. And the Danes say they will split mining proceeds with U.S. companies. But Trump insists Greenland must belong to him. Period.

And with Trump, there can be no negotiation, only appeasement. Anything less and Trump postures, shrieks, and writes a juvenile stream of consciousness threats on social media. Trump’s diplomacy resembles a schoolyard bully who seizes a ball and threatens to puncture it unless the other children applaud, cheer him loudly, and say how great he is.

One is tempted to apply the word “insanity” to Trump. But that would be unfair to the mildly deranged, many of whom possess at least some internal consistency. Trump’s mind is disordered and ungoverned.

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It is a place where impulse reigns supreme, and consequence is an afterthought. Trump’s pronouncements are untethered from reason, experience, or any discernible plan beyond immediate gratification.

So, Trump is threatening Europe with new tariffs for standing up to him on Greenland. Trump either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that Europe owns a lot of the U.S. debt. The Europeans could call in the U.S. debt and dump their dollar reserves, sending the value of our currency into a death spiral. The U.S. economy, which relies on the dollar being the global reserve currency, would then collapse. The inflation that would ensue would make the Covid era spikes look like a rounding error.

And never mind the economic calamities, there are also the potential U.S. military challenges. If U.S. troops seize Greenland, European nations would almost certainly demand the closure of every U.S. military base on their continent, including Ramstein in Germany, Aviano in Italy, and Lakenheath in the U.K.

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Without those bases, America’s ability to project power and influence the Middle East and Africa would vanish overnight.

The fact that Trump commands the most powerful military on earth AND the largest economy would be hilarious if it were not so frightening and expensive. The costs are already rising quickly. Retirement accounts are shuddering, businesses are freezing new investments, and now our allies are hedging against American instability.

Meanwhile, Trump keeps preening before the cameras, mistaking attention for achievement and chaos for strength.

The American people were once told that a wealthy real estate businessman would bring discipline and skill to government. Instead, we have gotten a tantrum-prone autocrat who treats global finance like a toy drum to be beaten loudly whenever his feelings are hurt.

Markets, like civilizations, eventually adapt. They price in risk. Increasingly, they are pricing in Trump himself—not as a leader, but as a hazard. And that is the most damning verdict of all: the President of the United States has become a volatility index.