David E. Sanger

the right to control Greenland, they're going to do it because they don't have another choice.

I was there this summer, and you could send as many troops as you want, and you haven't done it.

How come?

The way I read it was, hey, I spent my life as a real estate developer, and I know that you have way more control if you own than if you lease.

But that also means I fundamentally don't believe in relying on alliances anymore.

And the fact that Denmark, a member of NATO, which basically controls and protects Greenland, it's not enough for him to have an ally.

He's got to do it himself.

Now, you're going to ask yourself, where does that logic end?

Does it end with the United States demanding that it doesn't stop at Greenland?

Maybe we need Iceland as well.

I was left thinking that the president feels himself unconstrained by law, convention, or the systems that the United States itself built at the end of World War II, after the world had gone through two horrific... NATO and the entire system of international law.

That's right.

But at the same time, that he's not a warmonger, right?

He actually does want that peace prize.

He does want to be known as a president of peace.

And yet, when he's given the choice between long, slow, boring diplomacy and quick action by special operations breaking down doors, he'll go for the special operators.

And that is what is both maddening and fascinating about

about covering the Trump presidency, because you're not going to fit this man into some simple set of theories.

He is a bundle of contradictions.

Well, Zolan kicked it off with questions about this horrifying scene we had all just seen play out in Minneapolis just hours before.