Carney Is Offering a Rehab Program for Bruised US Allies
Mark Carney has suggested a strategy for US allies bruised by Donald Trump.
Photographer: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
At times, Donald Trump’s address to the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday felt rambling and unfocused, but don’t be fooled: The US president told his country’s European allies that when it comes to Greenland, he was making them an offer they can’t refuse.
In the event, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte looks to have found the US president an off-ramp from a fight with only downsides, even for the victor. Specifics are still to come — Trump said he wouldn’t impose tariffs after the “framework of a future deal” had been agreed — but regardless of whether a deal emerges , the world Trump described in Switzerland was that of a mafia boss who sees America’s allies not as partners but ungrateful recipients of protection. It was an approach foretold by Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney on the same stage a day earlier, in the best speech on international affairs I’ve seen a leader make in recent memory. The contrast between the two is worth dwelling on.