Oh, there is some great skullduggery afoot here, and not at all what I was going to write about initially, but all very much connected.
A plot! A plot has supposedly been uncovered and is being feverishly dissected and digested in the press at the moment.
WAS TRUMP PLANNING A MILITARY INVASION OF GREENLAND
The Associated Press is trying to claim that President Donald Trump is potentially going to use the military to seize Greenland.
— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) August 27, 2025
This is some low IQ journalism. pic.twitter.com/JFQ3oTyMb4
Wait, WHUT?
Where did this all suddenly come from?
Ah. A tantalizing clue from the NY Post.
Three people suspected of carrying out covert influence operation in Greenland, Denmark summons US diplomat https://t.co/suMvznufQN pic.twitter.com/tWhZpv0wTF
— New York Post (@nypost) August 27, 2025
And a diplomatic summons over 'covert influence operations.' Sounds serious, especially the part about a list of *checks notes* 'U.S. friendly Greenlanders.'
Ermagerd - can't have any of those types on the island. I'll bet Denmark wants that list for themselves.
Denmark’s foreign minister had the top U.S. diplomat in the country summoned for talks after the main national broadcaster reported Wednesday that at least three people with connections to President Donald Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in Greenland.
...Danish public broadcaster DR reported Wednesday that government and security sources, which it didn’t name, as well as unidentified sources in Greenland and the U.S., believe that at least three Americans with connections to Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in the territory.
One of those people allegedly compiled a list of U.S.-friendly Greenlanders, collected names of people opposed to Trump, and got locals to point out cases that could be used to cast Denmark in a bad light in American media.
Two others have tried to nurture contacts with politicians, businesspeople, and locals, according to the report.
An influence operation is an organized effort to shape how people in a society think in order to achieve certain political, military, or other objectives.
DR said its story was based on information from a total of eight sources, who believe the goal is to weaken relations with Denmark from within Greenlandic society.
To the Associated Press and TDS sufferers, proof yet again that Trump is nothing but a Russian at heart.
Making a list of people who like the U.S. and invading Ukraine.
Same-same
Equating US offers to buy Greenland with Russia’s genocidal invasion, is why the island is needed in the first place. https://t.co/oWPJODq0G7
— WM (@APTeacher1754) August 27, 2025
Personally, I think there wouldn't have been a word of this broached, had someone been cutting USAID checks, but the good old days are gone, right?
In any event, it gives everyone a cheap, thrilling bucketload of 'OMG WHAT IF-isms' for a week or two, and makes a squishy Danish government seem as if it's doing something defensively about Greenland.
Denmark has always had to be reluctantly and grudgingly forced to attend to Greenland. I mean, at the height of the 'Trump is taking Greenland ELEVENTY!!!' frenzy this past January, even the French offered troops to help the Danes out, who seemed to have some wishy-washy issues repulsing the unwanted and unsolicited American overtures.
Now they can all scare themselves silly about inquiring minds keeping lists of pleasant people for a week or two, and pretend it's as if Stalin had both eyeballs in binoculars on them.
So thrilling.
Back to lutefisk or whatever the rotted seameat delicacy is that they eat there. I'm sure they have one.
But, but, BUT.
This is where what I was going to write about comes in, and it's far more Trumpian and cut-throat business world dealing than any couple of guys wandering the island, knocking on doors and jotting down answers and addresses in a trapper keeper.
It was only the day before yesterday I told you how windfarm developer Ørsted's fortunes were, literally, dead in the water. This past Friday, the Department of the Interior issued a stop-work order on its humongous Revolution Wind offshore project, even though it was well on its way to being over 80% completed. There were already 45 of the 65 planned turbines installed, and billions upon billions of dollars in sunk costs had been expended.
Not only that, but Ørsted was in the process of setting up a $9.4B 'rights issue' lifeline intended to keep the company afloat and now?
...From what I read this morning, as of last week, that $9.4B 'rights issue' lifeline they were counting on to save them?
With construction halted, the company and its shareholders couldn't be in more dire straits.
Speaking of shareholders, the largest Ørsted shareholder happens to be?
The Danish government owns almost 51% of the company. If you don't think this doesn't put an entirely different wrinkle on this Revolution evolution, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Now. My running theory was that Trump was going to use the shutdown as leverage to force the New England/Mid-Atlantic governors into a cave, much as he did with Hochul and the gas pipeline when they paused Empire Wind.
But industry minds were thinking way out ahead of me, and they see this power move as a shot over the bow for Greenland.
Could be. The situation happens to tie two of Trump's favorite subjects - one a pet peeve, one a coveted objective - together.
When Donald Trump slapped a stop-work order on a $4bn (£2.9bn) windfarm project off the east coast of America, shareholders in the renewable-energy giant behind the plan knew the game was up.
Mr Trump’s decision to cancel the project by Danish giant Ørsted means offshore wind energy in the US is “effectively dead”, said the investment chief at AkademikerPension, an £18bn Danish pension fund.
AkademikerPension, which has a £23m stake in Ørsted, said it was now up to Danish politicians to “sort things out” with the White House and revive the company’s fortunes in America.
But that is easier said than done.
Relations between Denmark and the US are at rock bottom because Mr Trump covets Danish-owned Greenland, and Copenhagen refuses to discuss any potential sale or handover. Ørsted is caught in the crossfire, a piece of collateral damage in the US president’s geopolitical war.
Many see the president’s move against Ørsted’s wind farm project as a classic Trump tactic, designed to squeeze Denmark on his Greenland ambitions.
A renewables industry newsletter was even more to the point on what they saw as the sinister connotations of the Trump move and the government's explanations for it.
They're not buying what Interior's selling.
If you’re going to force a leading global energy infrastructure developer to halt work on an offshore wind project that is already 80% percent complete, you better have a good reason in your hip pocket, ready to pull out at a moment’s notice. Or not, as the case may be. When the Trump administration brought the Revolution Wind project to a screeching halt last week, they offered up a pathetically thin excuse that practically sits up and begs for further investigation.
What’s The Best Excuse Ever For Stopping Work On An Offshore Wind Farm?
Mystery has been swirling around the stop-work order ever since Friday, August 22, when Matthew Giacona, the Acting Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management at the US Department of the Interior, issued a letter telling the Danish firm Ørsted to “halt all ongoing activities related to the Revolution Wind Project on the outer continental shelf (OCS)” while the his office addresses “concerns that have arisen during the review that the Department is taken pursuant to the President’s Memorandum of January 20, 2025.”
As for why those concerns were not addressed when the Revolution Wind site was first identified as appropriate for offshore wind development, that’s a good question. BOEM is the federal agency tasked with defining offshore wind areas for lease to developers. The process involves assessing both environmental and national security concerns as well as issues related to tourism, fishing, shipping, and other competing interests, before the perimeter of a lease area is established. The Revolution Wind site is located off the busy coasts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and the equally busy Atlantic seaboard state of Connecticut is also involved as a partner in the project, making the task a particularly complex one.
I get that they're mad.
They then give consideration to my Hochul theory before they dive into the deep end.
...So, what new national security issue suddenly creeped out of the woodwork between between 2023 and 2025? Hmmm…well, lots of things. For one thing, In 2025 the US government began expressing an interest in annexing Greenland, which is a self-governing territory under the Kingdom of Denmark. That calls Ørsted into play, because Ørsted is a publicly listed state-owned enterprise with the Kingdom of Denmark controlling a 50.1% majority stake.
US President Donald Trump, who relentlessly promotes himself as the best dealmaker in the world, has so far failed to pressure Danish authorities into budging on the Greenland issue, so perhaps putting the squeeze on Ørsted will help move matters along.
If so, that might not sit too well with members of the Danish Parliament, who approved a new defense agreement with the US covering the use of military bases in Karup, Skrydrup, and Aalborg. The agreement was signed in 2o23 but not finalized until Parliament voted to approve it in June, by a margin of 94-11.
Coincidentally or not, California Governor Gavin Newsom also added fuel to the foreign relations fire last week. On Friday, August 22 — the same day that Giacona halted work on the offshore wind project — Newsome announced a new Memorandum of Understanding between California and Denmark “supporting cooperation on green economy resilience, technology, and innovation.”
...Oh, lordy. Hold on to your hats…
Kind of wild, huh?
Now, leverage is something Trump knows well, is unafraid to use when he has it, and he has it now.
Is he going to use the stilled turbines to beat the Danes into submission - maybe not to buy Greenland outright, but to wrap up some long-term territorial and international defensive rights, like the British with Hong Kong?
Who knows. He thinks big - maybe he'd just force them to sell it.
But if that's where he's going, he will damn sure be doing it with turbines before trapper keepers.
Oooh, what fun!
