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Joshua Frank, Donald Trump’s Version of Eco-Colonialism

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Yes, this January once again set a surprising global heat record (as did the year 2024). It was the 18th of the last 19 months that saw an average global temperature rise of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above that of pre-industrial times. It couldn’t be more obvious, in other words, that this planet is getting dangerously hotter (with far worse likely on the horizon). And America’s response? You got it: elect one Donald J. Trump, a climate-change denier, as president. And he’s already fulfilling his promises when it comes to pure environmental disregard.

The government isn’t even supposed to acknowledge a climate crisis anymore. As the Guardian recently reported, “A major climate portal on the Department of Defense’s website has been scrapped, as has the main climate change section on the site of the Department of State. A climate change page on the White House’s website no longer exists, nor does climate content provided by the US agriculture department, including information that provides vulnerability assessments for wildfires.” As climate scientist Michael Mann commented recently, “The keys to the car have been given to the polluters and fossil fuel plutocrats and they intend to drive it off the climate cliff.”

And that, of course, is just the beginning. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that workers at the Environmental Protection Agency are already being threatened with mass layoffs, while environmentally-oriented parts of the government are heading for shut-downs, and there’s undoubtedly far worse to come. Yet here’s the strange thing, as TomDispatch regular Joshua Frank reports today: among the places Donald Trump wants to take possession of on this planet, the vast island of Greenland is right at the top of his list and his interest in it is that it’s rich in critical minerals crucial to a global green revolution. And if that doesn’t seem odd, what does? But let Frank explain why it makes all-too-strange sense in the world of Donald Trump. Tom

The Heart (or Graphite) of Greed

Why Donald Trump’s Obsession with Greenland Is All About China

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In early January, Donald Trump Jr.’s private plane landed on a snowy airfield in Greenland. There was little fanfare upon his arrival, but his 14 million social-media fans were certainly tagging along.

“Greenland coming in hot…well, actually really really cold!!!” President Trump’s eldest son captioned a video he posted on X. It was shot from the cockpit of the plane, where a “Trumpinator” bobblehead (a figurine of his father as the Terminator) rattled on the aircraft’s dashboard as it descended over icy blue seas.

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William Astore, Making Old-Style Imperialism Great Again

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Thanks to Donald Trump, North America’s tallest mountain, Alaska’s Mt. Denali, may soon become Mt. McKinley, renamed for a former president who, according to our present one, “was a natural businessman, and gave Teddy Roosevelt the money for many of the great things he did, including the Panama Canal, which has foolishly been given to the country of Panama.” Ah yes, the Panama Canal! Why in the world did we ever let that go? You know McKinley, the president who, in 1898, advocated annexing the Republic of Hawaii as our “manifest destiny.” (“We need Hawaii just as much and a good deal more than we did California. It is manifest destiny.”)

Well, it’s not too late for a little more manifest destiny, or so our latest president thinks anyway.  According to him, it can once again become this nation’s “manifest destiny” to expand, expand, expand. You know the list, of course: in addition to the Panama Canal, Greenland (“I don’t really know what claim Denmark has to it, but it would be a very unfriendly act if they didn’t allow that to happen because it’s for the protection of the free world”); and certainly Canada! (“What I’d like to see — Canada become our 51st state.”) And don’t forget Gaza, which recently loomed as another possible all-American future possession for our 45th president. The two million Gazans would be shown the gate (no longer standing, of course) and Donald Trump and crew, as he put it, would become “responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings,” and so create “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

And while you’re at it and thinking about manifest destiny, don’t forget Mars. Yes, the Red Planet. When it comes to all-American expansion, this president has no intention of being limited to Earth. As he said in his second inaugural address (thank you Elon Musk and Space X!), “We will pursue our Manifest Destiny into the stars,” and he promised to send American astronauts to plant a flag on Mars (the 52nd state?).

Phew… I’m a little out of breath, so let me stop and turn you over to TomDispatch regular, historian, and retired Air Force Lt. Col. William Astore, who runs the must-read Bracing Views Substack, to fill you in on America’s all too grimly manifest destiny in the twenty-first century. Tom

Greenland! Canada! The Panama Canal! The Gulf of America! Gaza!

Manifest Destiny Gets a Reboot Under President Donald Trump

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A few years ago, I came across an old book at an estate sale. Its title caught my eye: “Our New Possessions.” Its cover featured the Statue of Liberty against stylized stars and stripes. What were those “new possessions”? The cover made it quite clear: Cuba, Hawaii, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. The subtitle made it even clearer: “A graphic account, descriptive and historical, of the tropic islands of the sea which have fallen under our sway, their cities, peoples, and commerce, natural resources and the opportunities they offer to Americans.” What a mouthful! I'm still impressed with the notion that “tropical” peoples falling “under our sway” offered real Americans amazing opportunities, as did our (whoops -- I meant their) lands. Consider that Manifest Destiny at its boldest, imperialism unapologetically being celebrated as a new basis for burgeoning American greatness.

The year that imperial celebration was published -- 1898 -- won’t surprise students of U.S. history. America had just won its splendid little imperial war with Spain, an old empire very much in the “decline and fall” stage of a rich, long, and rapacious history. And just then red-blooded Americans like “Rough Rider” Teddy Roosevelt were emerging as the inheritors of the conquistador tradition of an often murderously swashbuckling Spanish Empire.

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Robert Lipsyte, Beating the Bully

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[Note for TomDispatch readers: After you’ve read my introduction to Bob Lipsyte’s latest piece, and while you’re considering whether to buy a copy of his new young-adult novel Rhino’s Run for somebody you know, give some thought as well to visiting the TomDispatch donation page and making sure that TD has the ability to keep going in this ever-stranger world of ours. And many thanks in advance! Tom]

Just recently, in an op-ed responding to his threatened 25% tariffs on Canadian goods (now postponed a month), the Toronto Star‘s editorial board labeled Donald Trump a “bully.” Indeed, there probably couldn’t be a more accurate descriptive word for him. Its concluding paragraph read this way:

“These Canadians understand what all of us must now grasp: No one has ever won by appeasing a bully. No one has ever won by negotiating with a knife to their throat. But again and again, battles have been won by those who were counted out, who had no right to survive, never mind thrive, but did because they found strength in each other and a shared commitment to ideals and together did the hard work necessary to overcome. It has never been harder to band together despite our differences, and never more important.”

At 80, I must admit that there’s something deeply painful about having a bully as president of my country and, accompanying him, in a totally made-up Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that’s only growing more powerful by the day, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk. He is himself, of course, both distinctly a bully and increasingly moving the already right-wing Trumpist movement to greater extremes, even as he’s tried to close down the U.S. Agency for International Development and so shut off any decent American aid to anyone in trouble anywhere on this planet.

If anything, Trump and (at least for now) his buddy (Heil, Musk!) are redefining what it means to be a bully in a country that still passes (even if barely) for a democracy. So, it seemed all too appropriate that only recently this 80-year-old guy sat down and read former New York Times sportswriter and TomDispatch regular Bob Lipsyte’s latest young adult novel, Rhino’s Run. It’s about a high-school football player who fears being bullied and throws an impulsive punch at a teammate’s jaw and what follows. Despite my age, his striking new work gripped me in a distinctly youthful fashion that I’ll continue to savor (before I pass the book on to my grandson).

And while you’re thinking about whether to get the book for anyone you know (or yourself), check out Lipsyte’s thoughts on how to deal with the bully who, for the second time in our life (even if only by 49.7% of the vote), is president of these ever less united states of ours. Tom

How to Bump, Lump, Crumple, and Eventually Dump Donald Trump

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In bad times -- and these are bad times -- I call up the spirit of Willie.

Willie has seen me through cancer, divorce, and deaths in the family. His memory has given me the courage and strength to push on when I wanted to give up and hide. Willie reminds me that, even at 87, I can take it, get back up, survive, sometimes even win.

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