The 47th President and the Post-Biden World

After the extraordinary pushback on President Donald J. Trump’s bizarre demand for Greenland, he has responded with what economist Paul Krugman called “a howl of frustration on the part of a mad dictator who has just realized that he can’t send in the Marines.”

In a long screed this morning, Trump’s social media account said the president is placing tariffs of 10% on all goods from the countries currently protecting Greenland after February 1, and that the tariffs will increase to 25% on June 1. The post says the tariffs will be in effect “until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.”

This post is bonkers on many levels. On the most basic: where is he thinking he’s going to find the money for “the complete and total purchase of Greenland?” And besides, the countries involved—Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom—are all U.S. allies. Economist Justin Wolfers notes this trade war will include the entire European Union, for “[a] trade war with one EU country is a trade war with the entire EU.”

The post also makes explicit that Trump is trying to use tariffs not to nurture the American economy but to force other countries to do his bidding. The question of whether his tariff wars are constitutional because they address what he claims is an economic emergency is currently before the Supreme Court. Two lower courts have found that the president does not have the power to levy the sweeping tariffs he has been announcing. Today’s tariff announcement does not refer at all to economic need but rather is about economic coercion.

Finally, in its insistence that only the U.S. can “protect” Greenland, the screed echoed Russian president Vladimir Putin’s promises to “protect” Ukraine. Ignoring the reality that Greenland is part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the world’s strongest defense alliance, it said that Greenland and Denmark, of which Greenland is a part, “currently have two dogsleds as protection, one added recently.” It also added that the protection Trump insists only U.S. ownership of Greenland can provide might also include “the possible protection of Canada.”

As huge demonstrations of solidarity broke out today in Copenhagen and Nuuk, the capitals of Denmark and Greenland, respectively, both the European Council, made up of the heads of state or governments in the European Union, and the European Commission, the primary executive branch of the European Union, weighed in on Trump’s threats.

President of the European Council António Costa and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen issued a joint statement, underlining that “[t]erritorial integrity and sovereignty are fundamental principles of international law. They are essential for Europe and for the international community as a whole.” The two leaders reiterated that they are committed both to dialogue with the U.S. and to standing firm behind Denmark and the people of Greenland.

“Tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral,” they wrote. “Europe will remain united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty.”

The European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas—the EU’s chief diplomat—wrote: “China and Russia must be having a field day. They are the ones who benefit from divisions among Allies. If Greenland’s security is at risk, we can address this inside NATO. Tariffs risk making Europe and the United States poorer and undermine our shared prosperity.”

Representatives from the twenty-seven countries in the European Union are holding an emergency meeting tomorrow.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in the EU say they will not ratify a new trade agreement the European Commission and Trump signed last July. Some lawmakers are talking about using a trade “bazooka” against the U.S., a range of measures outlined in the E.U.’s Anti-Coercion Instrument that punish trade rivals trying to coerce the E.U. Those include trade restrictions and restricting investment in the E.U.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported today that Trump appears to be trying to set up his own organization to rival the United Nations. The administration has sent letters to leaders from several countries inviting them to be part of a “Board of Peace” led by the U.S. The board would first tackle the crisis in Gaza and then go on to take on other crises around the world.

Bloomberg reported today that the draft charter for the proposed organization makes Trump the board’s first chair and gives him the power to choose a successor. He would decide what countries can be members. Each member state would get one vote in the organization, but the chair would have to approve all decisions. The draft says that each member state has a term of no more than three years unless the chair renews it, but that limit doesn’t apply to any member states “that contribute more than USD $1,000,000,000 in cash funds to the Board of Peace within the first year of the Charter’s entry into force.” The draft suggests that Trump himself will control that money.

Last night, U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez in Minneapolis prohibited agents from the Department of Homeland Security from retaliating against or arresting peaceful protesters or using pepper spray or other less-lethal weapons against them. Menendez also prohibited agents from stopping or detaining people following their vehicles.

The descriptions in the decision of how agents have treated protesters are detailed and damning. The plaintiffs submitted sworn testimony. In contrast, the judge notes, the agents “did not provide sworn declarations from immigration officers (or others) who witnessed or were themselves directly involved,” but instead relied on the declaration of the acting field office director for the ICE St. Paul Field Office, David Easterwood—who was not present at any of the incidents—that the agents said the protesters had obstructed their activities.

Yesterday Fox News broke the story that the Department of Justice is investigating both Minnesota governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey on criminal charges for allegedly impeding the work of law enforcement officers in the administration’s surge of agents to their state.

Trump’s reliance on bogus investigations to establish a narrative is well established. This tactic of launching investigations to seed the idea that a political opponent has committed crimes has been a staple of the Republican Party since at least the 1990s. As the media reported on those investigations, people assumed that there must be something to them. Trump adopted this tactic wholeheartedly, most famously when he tried to force Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to announce he was opening an investigation into Hunter Biden—not actually to open the investigation, but simply to announce it—before Trump would release to Ukraine the money Congress had appropriated it to help it fight off Russia’s invasion.

The Trump administration is trying hard to project dictatorial strength and power, but the narrative is slipping away from it.

For all of Trump’s bluster about U.S. trade, the world appears to be moving on without the U.S. Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada visited Beijing this week, the first visit of a Canadian prime minister to China since 2017. On Friday, Canada broke with the U.S. and struck a major deal with China, cutting its tariff on Chinese electric vehicles in exchange for China’s lowering its tariffs on Canadian canola seed. Carney posted on social media: “The Canada-China relationship has been distant and uncertain for nearly a decade. We’re changing that, with a new strategic partnership that benefits the people of both our nations.”

Trump’s triumphant narrative is not working at home, either. A new CNN poll released Friday shows that fifty-eight percent of Americans believe that Trump’s first year in office has been a failure. Americans worry most about the economy, but concerns about democracy come in second. The numbers beyond that continue to be bad for Trump. Sixty-six percent of Americans think Trump doesn’t care about people like them. Fifty-three percent think he doesn’t have the stamina and sharpness to serve effectively as president.

Sixty-five percent of Americans say Trump is not someone they are proud to have as president.

In Virginia today, former representative and former intelligence officer Abigail Spanberger took the oath of office as the commonwealth’s seventy-fifth governor, the first woman to hold that position. In her inaugural address, she celebrated the peaceful transfer of power and called for Virginians to work together to make life more affordable and embrace progress, writing a new chapter in the state’s history.

“As we mark 250 years since the dawn of American freedom: What will our children, grandchildren, and their descendants write about this time in our Commonwealth’s history—this chapter—50, 100, and 250 years from now?” she asked.

“Will they say that we let divisions fester or challenges overwhelm us? Or will they say that we stood up for what is right, fixed what is broken, and served the common good here in Virginia?

Today, we’re hearing the call to connect more deeply to our American Experiment—to understand our shared history, not as a single point in time, but as a lesson for how we create our more prosperous future. And so I ask—what will you do to help us author this next chapter?

When President Donald Trump told protesters in Iran that “help is on its way,” they took heart. Their hopes rose further on Wednesday, with news that the Pentagon had ordered some non-essential personnel from its largest Middle East air base, a move seen as preparation for battle. But on Thursday, when Trump reversed course, announcing that Iran’s regime had agreed to stop killing its people in the streets, protestors felt betrayed, they told TIME.

“He's not only yellow on the outside, he's also yellow inside,” said an arts teacher in Tehran.

“After he said the Iranian authorities had told him there won’t be any more killings and executions, everyone was just stunned,” said an Iranian interviewed Friday, after traveling out of the country. “Everyone was enraged; they just kept saying this bastard used us as cannon fodder. Iranians feel that they were played, that he fooled them, deceived them.”

“Trump is worse than Obama,” said a 40-year-old businessman in Tehran, who said he called friends and relatives to give them the good news after Trump’s “help is on its way” post. “He screwed up. He pulled the rug from under our feet.”

The interviews were conducted after Trump appeared to back down from carrying out long-threatened military action against Iran this week. But the President added to the uncertainty again on Saturday by calling for an end to the rule of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

“It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,” he told POLITICO, after reportedly reading a series of posts from the Iranian leader blaming Trump for the deaths of protesters. “The man is a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people,” he added.

His comments may not be enough to bring protesters back out onto the streets, however. Trump, who ordered the U.S. military to join Israel in attacking Iran’s nuclear program in June, had urged on the latest protests nearly from the start. The demonstrations began in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar on Dec. 28, in response to the abrupt, catastrophic devaluation of Iran’s currency, then grew steadily across the country. In the past—2009, 2017, 2019, and 2022—Iran’s authoritarian regime had crushed mass protests. But five days into this outbreak, on Jan. 2, Trump made an explicit promise on Truth Social: “If Iran shots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protestors, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”

Iranians took heart. On Jan. 8, at the start of the Iranian weekend and following calls by Iran’s exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi and other opposition groups, millions took to the streets across the country.

'Trump is responsible'

The regime, in turn, responded with extreme violence. First, as it has done in the past before directing live fire into groups of its own citizens, it disconnected the nation of 90 million from the internet, then cut cell phone, SMS and land lines. Security forces then mounted an onslaught that left “thousands dead”, according to Khamenei, in remarks carried by the state TV Saturday.

“When I saw the man a few metres ahead of me fall backwards, I didn’t understand what had happened,” said the businessman, describing a scene on Jan. 8 on a Tehran street. “When we gathered around him, all I could see in the dark night was a red spot on his forehead. It was only when the blood from the back of his head pooled at our feet that we realized he’d been shot by a sniper.”

While the Iranian regime ordered the attacks, “Trump is also responsible for the death of these 15,000,” he said, quoting one estimate of the dead. “Because many of the protesters took to the streets when they saw his post that the US is locked and loaded.” He said that the U.S. must have made a deal with the Islamic Republic “to betray Iranians like this."

The killings occurred across the country. In the northern city of Zirab, a 39-year-old man said that, on the next day, Jan. 9, protestors were forced down a street only to see the way ahead blocked, with security forces at their back. “Then the streetlights went out, and machine guns started shooting,” he said. “Nothing could be seen, everyone was falling down, either from bullets or not seeing ahead of them, trying to get away.” The resident said he doesn’t know how many were killed, but that in the next few days there were as many as 17 missing in the city of a few thousand.

Iran’s rulers publicly gloated over Trump’s reversal. On Friday, Trump thanked them for promising to stop the planned executions of 800 protestors, the assurance he had offered as grounds for withholding the military action so widely expected that international flights steered around Iranian airspace.


Iranians gather while blocking a street during a protest in Tehran, Iran on January 9, 2026. Middle East Images—AFP via Getty

"Trump says a lot of nonsense and gibberish,” Tehran’s prosecutor, Ali Salehi, replied on Saturday, according to state TV. “Our reaction will be forceful, preventive and swift. Indictments have been issued for numerous cases and sent to courts."

Iranians say they are already living with the consequences of Trump’s reversal. “It’s already martial law,” said a woman in Tehran. “Now, after Trump went back on his word, they’ve become even more brazen. I saw a checkpoint on Marzdaran Boulevard where they were checking the cellphones of people.

“I’ve lost all hope,” she said. “Trump’s not going to do anything. Why should he? He doesn’t care about us.”

'He is tricking the regime'

Others say they retain hope that Trump still might act. “My husband believes that this is Trump’s usual pattern, to confuse them [the Islamic Republic],” said the Tehran resident. “He says if Trump does not attack, how can the regime be toppled? Iranians are doing everything they can, but the regime is just too savage.”

“He is tricking the regime,” said an engineer in Tehran, who also sees Trump’s reversal as tactical. “He’ll attack, and attack hard. He’s going to go after Zahhak himself,” the engineer said, referring to the name of the most evil character in Iranian mythology, used by protestors to describe Khamenei. “There can’t be any other option,” he added. “It's different this time.”

The businessman also hopes that this uprising will be different, so much so that he stayed behind in Iran when his wife and child flew out of the country on Thursday. But he says the protesters would need help. “The people on the streets did all they could do. We were facing machine guns on pick-up trucks, empty-handed. The only way we can win is with foreign intervention, like Kosovo or Bosnia."

Whatever Trump ultimately decides to do, most people in Iran agree that the protests have gone underground.

“Right now the uprising is paralyzed,” said the man from Zirab, who put the blame on Trump as well as the brutality of the regime. “I don’t know if it will ever recover.”

Iranian Protesters Say They Were Betrayed By Trump

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has tried to position himself as a bridge between Trump’s Washington and Europe, used some of his strongest language to date to condemn the president’s threats. “Applying tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of NATO allies is completely wrong,” he said in a statement Saturday.

While the German government issued a muted statement promising to coordinate a response with European allies, Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said Sunday: “We will not be blackmailed.” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is considered one of Trump’s closest allies in Europe, described the tariffs as “an error.”

Because the European Union is a single trading and customs bloc, the imposition of tariffs against some would effectively mean tariffs on all 27 nations, European officials said.

The scope of Europe’s response will be a key test for its diplomats as they balance the need to stand up for European sovereignty, manage delicate relationships with Washington and consider political and economic pressures at home. Cyprus, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the E.U., said European ambassadors will convene Sunday afternoon in Brussels to discuss next steps.

“European leaders including the UK have tried not to provoke Trump,” Bronwen Maddox, director of London’s Chatham House think tank, said in a text message Sunday. “But this is such an offense against their principle and interests that they will stand up to say so and may hit back with sanctions, too.”

The threat to grab a sovereign territory of Denmark against its will risks fundamentally breaking the NATO defense alliance, which European diplomats said would divide the West and embolden Moscow and Beijing. “China and Russia must be having a field day. They are the ones who benefit from divisions among Allies,” Kaja Kallas, the E.U.’s top diplomat, said Saturday.

On Monday, Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt are scheduled to visit NATO’s headquarters in Brussels for a preplanned meeting with Secretary General Mark Rutte.