Dear president Trump, listen very carefully, Greenland has been a part of the Danish kingdom for 800 years. It's an integrated part of our country, it is not for sale. Let me put it in words you might understand: "Mr. Trump, Fuck off".

These were the words of Danish member of European parliament Anders Vistisen in January of 2025. This was back in the early days of Trumps imperialistic rhetoric of making Canada the 51st state and taking over Greenland. Although Trump appears to have taken his sights (at least momentarily) off of Canada, Greenland is firmly in his crosshairs.

After a conversation in Washington yesterday with Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt held a press conference where they admitted that the U.S. and Danish opinions on the future of Greenland appear to still differ. This has led many to speculate on what comes next.

Trump appears to be emboldened by his success in Venezuela and has set his sights on the rest of the western hemisphere. There have been talks of major operations in Cuba, Colombia, Panama, but of course the one that everyone is most concerned about is Greenland. There is a very good reason why many consider Greenland to be a red-line. Greenland, as Anders Vistisen stated, has been under Danish control for centuries. As a fellow NATO ally to the U.S. Denmark, and by association Greenland, is under the protection of article 5 (collective defense) of the NATO alliance. This particular article of the alliance is arguably the most important one, which clearly states that an attack on one is effectively an attack on all NATO countries. So if the U.S. was to attempt at acquiring Greenland my military or coercive measures, this collective defense article would be invoked.

This begs the question, what happens if the largest military force in NATO decides to turn its back on the alliance?

When NATO secretary general Mart Rutte was asked this question in Brussels on Tuesday, he declined to answer. Instead he decided to walk a tight rope praising Trump for calling attention to the lack of defense in the arctic. Other NATO members have been more outspoken regarding Trump's pressure campaign on the land of ice and snow. President Emmanuel Macron of France has reaffirmed his allegiance to NATO and has, along with many other NATO aligned countries, has stated that Greenland belongs to Denmark and the people of Greenland.

To say that these are unprecedented times is a gross understatement. It would seem as if the entire rules-based world order has been upended by one man's tyrannical desires. Trump has put the entire NATO alliance into jeopardy, and should article 5 be invoked because of a U.S. incursion into Greenland my country of Canada, along with every other NATO-aligned country would be pulled into a de facto war against America.

It seems a multi-polar world is Trump's intent. Along with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. Europe belonging to Russia, Asia belonging to China, and the western hemisphere belonging to America, this is the world I fear we are heading toward unless Trump happens to be visited by four ghosts tonight.