Full Mad King

Yes, it’s real. He really did write that letter to the Norwegian PM, whinging (once again) about not getting the Nobel Prize and declaring that since he didn’t get the Prize, “I no longer feel any obligation to think purely of Peace.” And no, you are not the crazy ones if you think we have fallen down a black hole of mad king dementia.

“Unhinged” doesn’t really capture this moment, where we find ourselves in a full-blown crisis because our president is butt-hurt about losing an award no one was ever going to give him. And now we are left actually wondering if our military commanders would obey an order to fire upon our closest allies.¹

In answer to a query about whether the Naval War College had taught this sort of thing, former prof Tom Nichols wrote: “No, we did not teach cases…. where the president loses his last grip on reality and wants plans to start wars against our own allies. Amazingly, we did not think we had to design cases about a POTUS in a de facto alliance with the Kremlin to destroy NATO.”

Yet, here we are, trapped in a world be-shitted by this infantile man’s insecurities, delusions, and recklessness. This is the letter that Trump wrote, and I regret to tell you is not a parody:

Dear Ambassador:

President Trump has asked that the following message, shared with Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, be forwarded to your [named head of government/state]

“Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS [Fact check: bullshit], I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.

Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.

Thank you! President DJT”

**

How bad is this? Don’t ask. Actually, we have to ask, and the answer is not reassuring, at all. This is a good time to read Robert Kagan’s latest piece: “America vs. the World - The Atlantic” [Gift link]

Americans are entering the most dangerous world they have known since World War II, one that will make the Cold War look like child’s play and the post–Cold War world like paradise. In fact, this new world will look a lot like the world prior to 1945, with multiple great powers and metastasizing competition and conflict. The U.S. will have no reliable friends or allies and will have to depend entirely on its own strength to survive and prosper. This will require more military spending, not less, because the open access to overseas resources, markets, and strategic bases that Americans have enjoyed will no longer come as a benefit of the country’s alliances. Instead, they will have to be contested and defended against other great powers.

Nota bene

“Prominent Catholic Clerics Denounce U.S. Foreign Policy”- The New York Times

The three highest-ranking Roman Catholic clerics who lead archdioceses in the United States said in a strongly worded statement on Monday that America’s “moral role in confronting evil around the world” is in question for the first time in decades. Their critique of the Trump administration’s principles — while not mentioning President Trump by name — escalates the American Catholic Church’s denunciations of the country’s top leaders.

In 2026, the country has entered “the most profound and searing debate about the moral foundation for America’s actions in the world since the end of the Cold War,” read the unusual statement issued by Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago; Cardinal Robert McElroy, archbishop of Washington; and Cardinal Joseph Tobin, archbishop of Newark.

Citing recent events in Venezuela, Ukraine and Greenland as having raised fundamental questions about the use of military force, the cardinals call for a “genuinely moral foreign policy” in which “military action must be seen only as a last resort in extreme situations, not a normal instrument of national policy.”

Meanwhile…

Via Mediate: “Stephen Miller: MN Cops Ordered to Stand Down, Surrender.”

In a social media post late Sunday night, Miller said, “Only federal officers are upholding the law.”

He added: “Local and state police have been ordered to stand down and surrender.”

Finally…

Monday dogs

Eli finds a safe space.

BTW: Apparently, we had some middle-of-the-night drama in the woods this weekend. We often see the two bucks maneuvering for dominance.

But this escalated quickly.

1. Tom Nichols wrote:

“Trump is calling for actions that likely contravene American and international law. He is undermining the peace and stability of an allied nation, while threatening a campaign of territorial conquest. He refuses to rule out an unprovoked war of aggression, a violation of the United Nations Charter and an international crime that would be little different in kind from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempt to seize Ukraine. Finally, the almost-certain illegality of any attempt to seize Greenland against the will of its people and the Danish government means that if Trump directs the U.S. military to engage in such an operation, he could well precipitate the greatest civil-military crisis in American history since the Civil War.”