"Shockingly, our 'brilliant' NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital U.S. Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER."
Welcome to Tuesday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Like many of his peers, Britain's leader hassought to keep Donald Trump closesince the start of his second administration a year ago, figuring flattery was the best approach to navigating the US president's narcissistic vagaries.
Now, though, as Trump prepares to fly to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Starmer too finds himself joining the ranks of those either insulted by the US President, and/or finding their private messages to him shared with the world.
"The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding that it was, "another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired."
Perhaps Trump's tirade was triggered by remarks made by the British prime minister on Monday – that the president's threat to put tariffs on allies, to get his way over Greenland, was "completely wrong."
Whatever it was, it served to affect a 180-degree switch on what had previously been White House support for Britain's decision to hand over a group of islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius. US Secretary of State Marco Rubiopraised the dealin May as a "historic agreement" and "monumental achievement."
UK government figures sent out to talk to the media immediately afterwards urged coolness.
"I would be in favor of keeping calm and trying to sit this out a bit, see what happens next. We're getting this bevy of messages and so on at the moment," senior Labour politician Emily Thornberry told the BBC.
She was certainly right about Trump's use of his social media account overnight. France's President Emmanuel Macron was another one caught in the maelstrom.
Shortly before posting an apparently AI-generated image of himself in the White House showing European leaders a map of North America, in which both Canada and Greenland were colored with the Stars and Stripes, Trump had pasted a (real) message from Macron.
"My friend, we are totally in line on Syria, we can do great things on Iran. I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland," Macron's message began, before going on to suggest he could host a G7 meeting in Paris on Thursday.
As a sweetener, the French leader threw in a little extra va-va-voom at the end.
"Let us have a dinner together in Paris together on Thursday before you go back to the US."
Perhaps it was aimed at stirring memories of 2017, when the Macrons and the Trumps dined together at the Eiffel Tower on Bastille Day after Trump had been guest of honor at the annual parade.
Regardless, those heady days are long gone.
When Trump was asked by a reporter on Monday for his reaction to Macron's declining the offer of a place on his "Board of Peace," he immediately hit below the belt.
"'Well, nobody wants him because he's going to be out of office very soon."
Other recent betrayals of private messages include Trump's circulation of a message to the Norwegian prime minister accusing Norway of snubbing himover the Nobel Peace Prize, and his reading of a note slipped him by Marco Rubio - apparently in confidence - during on-camera comments about Venezuela.
The 'Daddy' of them all
In any account of toe-curling exchanges with Trump, the current NATO secretary
general is never far away.
A tall man, Mark Rutte is perhaps familiar with stooping low to avoid hitting his head.
"Mr President, Dear Donald. What you accomplished today in Syria is incredible. I will use my media engagements in Davos to highlight your work there, in Gaza, and in Ukraine. I am committed to finding a way forward on Greenland. Can't wait to see you. Yours, Mark"
That object lesson in obsequiousness was also pushed out by Trump on Truth Social.
Rutte has form, of course. Famously, he oncecalled Trump "Daddy."
"And then Daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get it stopped," he said sitting opposite Trump at a NATO meeting last year.
Trump, who loves to frame international relations in a way that, well, just about anybody could understand, had just compared Russia's invasion of Ukraine to a playground fight.
"You know, they fight like hell. You can't stop them. Let them fight for about two to three minutes, then it's easy to stop them."
The language is facile and vacuous, but those on-camera encounters are revealing
"I mean, what would I say in that situation?" we ponder, feeling a sympathetic twinge for the NATO secretary general, as we watch his brain scramble a response.
Democratic governor of California Gavin Newsom told Sky News he had had enough of the craven behavior.
"I should have brought a bunch of knee pads for all the world leaders. I mean, handing out crowns, the Nobel prizes that are being given away. It's just pathetic," he said.
Europe's elite gathering in Switzerland ahead of Trump's arrival on Wednesday might envy such cockiness.
As the stakes for Europe appear to get ever higher, the challenge of how to deal with the US president just appears to get madder by the moment.
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