Vladimir Putin has been attempting to influence Donald Trump to seize both Venezuela and Greenland since at least 2017.
The effort, rooted in Putin's ambitions in Ukraine, hinged on American embrace of the Monroe Doctrine,
the 1823 policy framework that focused American influence within the Western Hemisphere.
Putin's reasoning, according to witnesses familiar with the proposals,
is simple:
if Trump would agree to disengage in Ukraine,
Putin would agree to give Trump control in Venezuela.
Each country is in the other's “backyard,” the story went,
so if Trump got relief in his backyard,
Putin could expect reciprocation in his.
Rather than approach Trump outright with an explicit quid-pro-quo arrangement,
Putin arranged a series of dangles and provocations that he hoped might prompt Trump to follow Putin's plan.
♦️The Origins of Trump's Greenland Obsession
Ron #Lauder,
the cosmetics heir and confidant to both Trump and Putin, initially approached Trump with the idea to buy Greenland in 2017.
According to the 2022 book "The Divider" by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, Trump took it to his National Security Adviser,
John #Bolton,
saying,
“A friend of mine,
a really, really experienced businessman,
thinks we can get Greenland.”
Lauder even volunteered to serve as a “back channel” to the Danish government and help drive the negotiations.
Bolton did not initially reject the idea, reasoning that an expanded relationship with Greenland might serve American interests.
But he also knew the notion of buying Greenland was next to impossible;
Truman had tried to do so and failed in 1946,
and the Danes were still uninterested.
Bolton also rejected the idea of Lauder as emissary.
By 2018, knowing Trump would likely not drop the idea,
Bolton instructed his aide Fiona #Hill to at least explore the idea.
Hill and Michael #Ellis, a National Security Council lawyer,
met secretly with the ambassador to Denmark to develop ideas that might be workable,
with the knowledge that a purchase was impossible.
They brainstormed various alternatives,
but Bolton instructed them to stop in favor of more important work.
But Trump didn't let it drop, and also became fixated on
#Puerto #Rico.
He threatened to shift hurricane relief funds from the island commonwealth towards acquiring Greenland,
going so far as to even propose a trade of Puerto Rico for Greenland
— a bargain the Danes would surely find bizarre.
https://america2.news/the-russian-roots-of-trumps-venezuela-and-greenland-operations/
