Ronald Reagan famously said, “There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.” Thomas Sowell describes a self-declared group of people who claim the right to make choices for others. Their pronouncements seem wise to them, but they impose them on the public. The price is paid by others. The “wise” always claim their policies were simply implemented incorrectly or incompletely.
Those in the club cannot conceive that any outsider can make a useful contribution to society. I saw this in the reaction to the role of Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II in the collapse of the Soviet Union. The public saw both men playing a role, but fashionable historians dismissed it.
Trump saw multiple problems and started to work on them, with varying degrees of success. For various reasons, he has been more successful in his second term. Apparently, some people can’t stomach the idea of living with any memory of a Trump legacy and are willing to reverse real progress to erase his memory.
TACO and Greenland
“Trump Always Chickens Out!” Really? I’ve heard a better explanation. He reaches for the stars and settles for the moon. More importantly, he was asking for something vital to the safety and security of the United States and the world.
Greenland is a vast area of ice with only about 55,644 people. It is three times the size of Texas and 25% bigger than Alaska. It matters for only one reason. Location, location, location! It sits between Europe and the United States and between the North Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean.
Whoever can put bases on Greenland can control a sizable portion of the Arctic and have a base for planes to monitor activity above, on, and below the Atlantic. Denmark doesn’t have the assets to defend Greenland. Greenland is also reportedly considering seeking independence. A nation of less than sixty thousand people certainly doesn’t have those resources.
Trump sees Chinese efforts to gain access to various assets in Greenland and Russia’s efforts to claim Arctic territory at Greenland’s expense. His “reach for the stars” demand to claim Greenland for the U.S. was a conversation starter to ensure serious talks began, and Greenland’s security was enforced. A Wall Street Journal article summarized the agreement.
While additional details are needed, the outline of Friday’s deal among the U.S., Denmark and Greenland solves the most pertinent security issues. By ensuring U.S. military access to Greenland in perpetuity, expanding the U.S. military presence on the island, and restricting other countries’ military and economic access to Greenland, Washington has achieved the goals Mr. Trump set out when he called for the acquisition of Greenland. …
The pact makes America and its partners safer and puts China and Russia on notice that the U.S. and its Arctic partners will stand shoulder to shoulder against their malign behavior in one of the world’s most dynamic regions.
Political control of Greenland would have been both a headache and costly. Trump never really wanted that. He saw military and security issues. This treaty resolves that. He gave up only what he never really wanted.
No to World Peace
Trump supporters have joked that if he arranged world peace, war would become popular. That may be coming true. In August 2025, Trump helped arrange a peace treaty ending a 30-year conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Brenda Shaffer and Svante Cornell of The Hill wrote an excellent article describing why that matters for other operations in the Caspian.
President Trump launched the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, TRIPP for short, in partnership with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
This route is much more than a simple road; it represents an active American intent to safeguard access to the heart of Eurasia, helping partner countries maintain their independence and preventing Russia, China and Iran from dominating the strategically vital Caspian region.
The U.S. and Western allies need to promote infrastructure that blunts the impact of disruptions to freedom of the seas and spurs the development of energy resources outside the Middle East. TRIPP is an important component of this policy.
The article explains TRIPP’s value, its strategic importance, and our adversaries’ reaction. All this is on top of the basic value of a peace treaty after thirty years of war. What’s not to like? Simple! Donald Trump did it. Mat Whatley of Townhall has an article pointing out an absurd proposition being proposed in the European media.
[M]ultiple mainstream press outlets in Germany, Greece, and Poland have argued that Armenia should think carefully as to whether it would be safer to keep a Russian military base in its country than demand that it leave. Yes, that’s correct: Russia is, apparently, being touted by media broadly viewed as credible as a reliable guarantor of a European country’s security. Take all the time you need to think that logic through.
There is, naturally, a cause for this madness — and it is Trump Derangement Syndrome. The underlying message as to why Armenians should keep a base full of Russian military occupiers is that doing so would make it less likely that Trump’s most substantial (but too little acknowledged) foreign policy triumph — peace between Armenia and its neighbor Azerbaijan — will ultimately succeed.
That’s right, creating peace between nations and a strategy to hurt Iran and Putin can’t succeed if it is connected to Trump in any way.
Banquet Hall
When John F. Kennedy saw Pennsylvania Avenue in 1961, he thought it was an embarrassment. He arranged to have the existing buildings torn down and replaced with new and more impressive public and private buildings.
Donald Trump has long been embarrassed by the fact that the world’s greatest power hosts state dinners on grass lawns under tents. There is no class on grass. He thinks we should have a banquet hall. If Trump were a popular Democrat, every foundation in the country would contribute; there would be no controversy, and it would be done.
The East Wing had to go to build the Hall. It was normal construction. The old makes way for the new. Oh! No! Trump destroyed a major landmark! Now there is talk that even if it is built, it will be destroyed because Trump can’t have a legacy!