Imperial madness
Sure, it's 25th amendment time, but of course, do not hold your breath
So Donald Trump insists on control of Greenland for U.S. national security, even though the island is already open to U.S. defense installations and mining initiatives.[1] So this can’t really be about any of that.
Rather, it’s apparently about Trump feeling snubbed over the Nobel Peace Prize. Even though Denmark, which holds sovereignty over Greenland, is not Norway, and Norway’s government is distinct from the Nobel Prize committee.[2] He is already threatening additional tariffs until Denmark agrees to “sell” Greenland and has threatened to take control of the territory militarily, which might well end the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—an end Vladimir Putin has long desired.[3]
There may be another link. A map exists of the “Technate of America,” in which all of North and Central America, and parts (at least) of Venezuela, Columbia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, are under U.S. control, which would extend as far as Pago Pago in the Pacific. It was the creation of the Technocracy movement,[4] which (guess who?) Elon Musk’s grandfather was a part of.[5]
In geographic breadth, it sounds like a neoconservative wet dream: Neoconservatives are so persuaded of the superiority of the U.S. economic and political system to all humans, regardless of history or culture,[6] that they might well be on board for such an expansion. But the Technocracy movement was about replacing that economic and political system with a technocracy,[7] which sounds a bit like the aconstitutional broligarchy Trump has very nearly succeeded in imposing.[8]And given Trump’s affinity for Putin, imagine all this under de facto if not de jure Russian control.
This is, of course, the stuff of madness and while the 25th amendment to the U.S. Constitution covers this contingency, any hope that Trump’s sycophants will invoke it is unrealistic.[9] We are, as of today, barely a year into his second term.
[1] Issy Ronald, “Why does Trump want Greenland and why is it so important?” Cable News Network, January 18, 2025, https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/06/europe/why-trump-wants-greenland-importance-intl
[2] Anne Applebaum, “Trump’s Letter to Norway Should Be the Last Straw,” Atlantic, January 19, 2026, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/trump-letter-to-norway/685676/
[3] Dan Rather, “Why Is This Man Smiling?” Steady, January 19, 2026, https://steady.substack.com/p/why-is-this-man-smiling
[4] Cornell University Library, “Technate of America,” April 25, 2024, https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:34227574
[5] Wikipedia, c.f. Joshua N. Haldeman, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_N._Haldeman - Political_activity_in_Canada
[6] David Benfell, “Conservative Views on Undocumented Migration” (doctoral dissertation, Saybrook, 2016). ProQuest (1765416126).
[7] Wikipedia, c.f. Joshua N. Haldeman, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_N._Haldeman - Political_activity_in_Canada
[8] David Benfell, “It’s an aconstitutional broligarchy now,” Not Housebroken, September 23, 2025, https://nothousebroken.substack.com/p/its-an-aconstitutional-broligarchy
[9] Janna Brancolini, “Trump’s Insane New Threat Leaves No Doubt: It’s Time for the 25th Amendment,” Daily Beast, January 19, 2026, https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-appalling-threat-leaves-no-doubt-its-time-for-the-25th-amendment/