Trump still wants Greenland.

That's absolutely right.

The rhetoric in early January right after the, um, uh, kidnapping of Maduro and the operation in Venezuela was so intense, and the signals were so ambiguous towards the Danish government and the all-European allies that Denmark and seven other European countries actually deployed troops to Greenland, and the Danes were operating understanding orders to shoot at any invading forces.

They carried with them live ammunition.

They carried explosives to blow up the Greenlandic runways in case of an invasion, and they also had blood packs in case of casualties.

You know, there was never an expectation that they would ever to, be able to defend Greenland for y- long against a full-scale, you know, invading [laughs] US force, nor were there, was there particular clarity that the Americans would do something.

It was merely as a someone involved in the planning put it to me, it was to raise the cost, to send a signal to the Americans that if you attempt this, you are going to have to shoot at European troops and kill European troops because we will fight back.

And so what is the strategy of the Trump administration now to get Greenland?

And then in January of this year, after the US military action to take out, um, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Trump's rhetoric about taking over Greenland really kind of ramped up, didn't it?

Yes, in the aftermath of the Venezuela raid, it really seemed to the Danes and the Greenlanders that, uh, sort of piggybacking off of the success of that raid, he might do something else, and there were a number of indications that Greenland would be the next target.

Among them was that a former White House official, Katie Miller, who's also married to Stephen Miller, Trump's homeland security advisor, posted online a map of Greenland overlaid with the American flag with a one-word caption.

It just said, "Soon." And then Trump said, "We do need Greenland, absolutely," and his acolytes were basically making clear that this was a priority.

Stephen Miller himself went on CNN and said, "Nobody's going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.

By what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland?" So at that point, the Danes were really spooked, and they and seven other European nations deployed troops to Greenland.

They actually carried live ammunition and explosives, and they prepared to blow up Greenland's runways to slow any possible invasion.

One of the other things you write about is that he traveled to Greenland uninvited to attend a business conference with the instruction of just trying to, what, make some friends?