After Greenland

The first responsibility of the federal government is to provide for our country’s national security. Without our independence and national security, the Constitution and laws that we live under would be irrelevant. It was Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence which promoted violent revolution in response to Great Britain’s trampling of American rights, who said: “A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the highest virtues of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means.”

President Donald Trump receives daily criticism from the left (and even some on the right) for his aggressive immigration enforcement, his tariff policy, his revival of the Monroe Doctrine, his insistence on exercising control over key parts of Greenland, and his sometimes blustering rhetoric. He has been accused of colonialism, bullying allies and smaller nations, acting like a 19^th century imperialist, and stretching Article II powers beyond constitutional boundaries. In truth, all of Trump’s controversial actions are designed to ensure for the United States hemispheric security and to effectively offset the geopolitical challenge of China. He is acting, to borrow Jefferson’s words, in conformance with the “laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger.”

News reports indicate that the Trump administration has reached the outlines of a deal with NATO and Denmark to gain control of parts of Greenland for an indefinite future. Greenland’s geographical location in the North Atlantic Ocean with access to the Arctic Ocean will enable the United States to counter an ongoing Sino-Russian effort to dominate the emerging Northwest Passage. Greenland’s rare earth minerals and other natural resources will lessen America’s reliance on China for those strategically important items. Success in Greenland follows on the heels of Trump’s success in reducing China’s influence over the Panama Canal and in lessening China’s influence in Venezuela. It is all about hemispheric security.