There has been a great deal of heat – and not an overabundance of light – when it comes to the media’s reactions to Donald Trump’s renewed interest in acquiring Greenland from Denmark after he resumes the US presidency on January 20. The tone of commentary has very much had a flavour of, “What on earth is Trump on about now?” The president-elect’s refusal this week to rule out using economic or military force if necessary to take control of the world’s biggest island has been met with copious, if predictable, warnings from world leaders about sovereignty and the inviolability of borders.
This is by no means to denigrate the vital importance of sovereignty, the rule of law or the inviolability of national borders. These should go without saying. But asking politicians to rule things out at press conferences is a classic journalistic gambit that almost always draws the answer “no”. It’s a fairly meaningless exercise.
