On Foreign Policy, Trump 2.0 Is Dangerously Unrestrained 

The president still has time to put America first.

Doug Bandow

Jan 15, 2026

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/on-foreign-policy-trump-2-0-is-dangerously-unrestrained/

Even as he underwrites and wages multiple wars, proposes a gargantuan $500 billion increase in military outlays, and plans to build his own Arc de Triomphe, President Donald Trump apparently believes himself to be a man of peace. He has become a classic example of historian Lord Acton’s dictum in action: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” 

As Trump completes the first year of his second term, he is demonstrating that his first term was merely a playful preview. This time he has gotten serious, with new wars and threats of war multiplying, sometimes on an almost daily basis. He believes that there are no meaningful limits—legal, institutional, constitutional, or even moral, other than his own musings—on loosing the dogs of war with the most powerful military on earth. This makes him potentially the most dangerous U.S. president yet.

During his first term Trump backed Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against Yemen, underwriting personal tyranny and mass killing. This term he struck Yemen’s Ansar Allah militant group directly, despite the lack of any meaningful U.S. interests at stake. During his first term he supported Israel against all comers, most importantly backing its brutal occupation of the perpetually helpless Palestinians, whom Israel treats rather as ancient Sparta treated its helots. This term he armed and reinforced Israel in its continuing wars in Gaza and Lebanon, despite catastrophic civilian losses, as well as its illegal and unprovoked attack on Iran. Trump I merely assassinated one Iranian military leader and abandoned diplomacy regarding Iran’s nuclear program; Trump II used diplomacy as a ruse to facilitate Israel’s illegal and unprovoked attack on Iran before joining in the bombing later. Now he is threatening to intervene, somehow, in that nation’s internal strife.

Trump I mulled using force against Venezuela, but backed down in the face of broad regional opposition. Trump II arbitrarily terminated special envoy Richard Grenell’s diplomatic initiative and launched illegal and unprovoked attacks on Venezuela, while also threatening other Latin American governments that he dislikes, including Colombia, Panama, and even Mexico. Peering obliviously into the hideously complex imbroglio of Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria, the president issued violent Truth Social threats, followed by launching a handful of missiles in the name of protecting Christians. Testing the limits of the dictum that targets of his opprobrium should take him seriously, not literally, Trump is aggressively threatening to swallow Greenland, despite the current lack of threats and his previous neglect of America’s military role on the island. 

Perhaps worse, the onetime scourge of U.S. subsidies for whiny wealthy allies has abandoned all talk of withdrawing U.S. forces from Europe, South Korea, and Japan. Once allies promised to spend more on their militaries, even when it was difficult to distinguish reality amid their abundant smoke and mirrors, Trump lost interest in having them take over responsibility for their own security. Hence Washington remains entangled in the Russia–Ukraine war, a tragedy that grows ever more dangerous for America as European nations continue to escalate their proxy war against Moscow. 

Then there is the Middle East. Even more so than his predecessors, Trump has denied nothing to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even demanding that the nominally democratic state pardon the latter over alleged crimes. Worse, Trump appears determined to make America the guarantor of absolute monarchy in the region, declaring a security commitment—with neither treaty nor congressional assent—for Qatar. He has pressed to do the same for the even more corrupt and brutal Saudi Arabia, if only it would recognize Jerusalem.

Trump I was always more Jacksonian unilateralist than Ron-Paulian noninterventionist, but he earned support from restrainers with his dramatic criticism of the Iraq war, a welcome if convenient reversal from his attitude at the time. However, Trump II has reinvented himself as a neoconservative warrior with barely the pretense of morality or principle. The president evidently wants to be in control: Like his perpetually addled and confused predecessor, he declared that he runs the world. Toward that end he has proved even more willing to wage economic as well as kinetic war. Like the mythical Zeus tosses thunderbolts, Trump issues sanctions and tariffs against almost whoever or whatever engages his ever-evanescent attention span.

The downsides of the president’s approach are significant. The first is to risk involvement in complicated and dangerous imbroglios of little relevance to American security and beyond American solution. So far, the president’s predictable inattention to detail and waning interest in whatever had captured his interest yesterday has protected the U.S. from disaster. For instance, the administration gave up against Yemen’s Houthis, abandoning its expensive but fruitless naval mission. The White House no longer is talking about launching a religious crusade in Nigeria. If Iran’s protests wane, he may abandon that issue as well. The U.S. is likely to avoid conflict with Russia if the latter continues to win its war, albeit in a terribly slow and costly manner, while evading a clash involving NATO, which would be a wild and likely a losing gamble.

The second problem is the bankruptcy of the American people. The Pentagon budget is the price of America’s foreign policy. The U.S. needs very little to defend itself and its domination of the Western Hemisphere. Most American personnel and weapons are devoted to defending the gaggle of nominal allies around the world that have leeched off of the U.S. for years, and often decades. Surely it is time for South Korea to defend itself from the North, the Europeans to guard against Russia, and the coalition of Israel and Gulf monarchies to protect themselves from Iran. Even China can be constrained by Japan, which could make aggression too expensive to contemplate. As for Taiwan, are the American people prepared to fight a nuclear war thousands of miles from home that would look uncomfortably like the Cuban Missile Crisis in reverse? 

If the president nevertheless wants to run the world, he needs a lot more force. Hence his proposal for a $1.5 trillion military budget. The president’s fiscal priorities, to hike military outlays, protect entitlement spending, and cut taxes, have the U.S. on a catastrophic course. In 2025 the U.S. spent $7 trillion, borrowing $2 trillion of the funds and devoting more than $1 trillion to simply pay interest on the resulting debt. With Uncle Sam planning to continue down this path, budget deficits, debt totals, and interest payments will continue to rise until the entire federal financial structure risks collapse.

Finally, the president’s approach is ultimately unproductive, even unrealistic. While cynicism about “rules-based order” is appropriate—the U.S. and its allies carefully wrote the rules and freely violate them to their benefit—there still is some value in both hypocrisy and insincerity. Pretending to be committed to something beyond pure self-interest, acting like there are constraints even on the pursuit of legitimate and valuable interests, is important. Claiming that Washington can do whatever it wants irrespective of principle, morality, or consequence is already unsettling allied states and encouraging less friendly ones. 

Even more perversely, the administration is wasting economic resources, military credibility, and political capital to achieve what could be gained diplomatically. For instance, though Trump’s Venezuela machinations have been defended by some conservative realists, even Trump admitted that a peaceful solution was available there. So too with Greenland and Panama, even absent talk of war and military strikes. The president’s trolling of former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau yielded a recalcitrant government in Ottawa and an angry population. Trump’s blustering reinforced Australia’s previous leftward shift in last year’s election. His refusal to even acknowledge the humanity of tens of thousands of dead Palestinian civilians, let alone to take their lives into account in U.S. policy, will continue to fuel instability in the Middle East. Most bizarre may have been the president’s willingness to offend rising powers—Brazil and India, for instance—essentially scoring own goals in today’s geopolitical great game. 

Trump still has time to put America first in practice as well as rhetoric. To start, he should maintain focus on the U.S. “near abroad” but rediscover diplomacy and economic engagement in advancing American interests. Most importantly, he should more rigorously assess more distant diminishing priorities. The world will always be unstable and messy, but most international crises need not be Washington’s responsibility. Uncle Sam should step back. The president’s job is to run the U.S. government, not the world, as he claimed, and to do so to protect America, its people, territory, liberties, and prosperity. That should be his legacy.

7 Out Of 10 Voters Do Not Want the U.S. To Take Military Action Against Iran For Killing Of Protesters, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; 70% Say Presidents Should Seek Congressional Approval Before Taking Military Action Against Another Country

January 14, 2026

https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3945

In the wake of U.S. threats of military action against Iran if protesters there are killed while demonstrating against the Iranian government, 70 percent of voters think the U.S. should not get involved, while 18 percent think the U.S. should take military action against Iran, and 12 percent did not offer an opinion, according to a Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pea-ack) University national poll of registered voters released today.

Independents (80 - 11 percent), Democrats (79 - 7 percent), and Republicans (53 - 35 percent) think the U.S. should not get involved if protesters in Iran are killed while demonstrating against the Iranian government.

MILITARY ACTION & CONGRESS

Voters 70 - 24 percent think that, in general, if a president decides to take military action against another country, they should first receive approval from Congress.

There are differences along political party lines.

Democrats (95 - 2 percent) and independents (78 - 18 percent) think a president should first receive approval from Congress, while Republicans (54 - 35 percent) think a president should not.

"Talk of the U.S. military potentially intervening in Iran's internal chaos gets a vigorous thumbs down, while voters signal Congressional approval should be a backstop against military involvement in any foreign crisis,"said Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy.

VENEZUELA

Voters are divided on the Trump administration's decision to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife and bring them to the United States to face drug trafficking charges, as 47 percent support the decision, while 45 percent oppose it.

Republicans (85 - 7 percent) support the decision, while Democrats (79 - 11 percent) oppose it. Independents are divided, with 45 percent supporting it and 47 percent opposing it.

Voters 53 - 41 percent do not think the Trump administration is providing a clear explanation of the reasons behind the United States' actions against Venezuela.

Voters 57 - 35 percent oppose the United States running Venezuela until it is satisfied that the government there will operate the way the U.S. wants it to.

Voters 73 - 21 percent oppose the United States sending ground troops into Venezuela in order to control the country.

Voters 55 - 38 percent oppose the U.S. taking over Venezuela's oil sales.

Voters are split on whether they think the U.S. actions in Venezuela will improve the lives of everyday Venezuelans, as 45 percent think they will improve their lives, 44 percent do not think so, and 11 percent did not offer an opinion.

"Voters are divided on the merits of overthrowing Maduro. And while split on whether in the long run, the people of Venezuela will be better off, they strongly disapprove of America's temporary domain over Venezuela and are heartily against putting U.S. troops on the ground,"added Malloy.

GREENLAND

In the wake of discussions about the United States trying to either buy Greenland or use military force to take control of it, voters say:

• 86 - 9 percent they would oppose the United States trying to take Greenland by military force;
• 55 - 37 percent they would oppose the United States trying to buy Greenland.

MEXICO & COLOMBIA

Voters 57 - 37 percent would oppose the United States taking military action to attack suspected illegal drug facilities in Mexico, if this meant acting without the permission of the Mexican government.

Voters 55 - 36 percent would oppose the United States taking military action to attack suspected illegal drug facilities in Colombia, if this meant acting without the permission of the Colombian government.

TRUMP JOB APPROVALS

Forty percent of voters approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president, while 54 percent disapprove, unchanged from Quinnipiac University's December 17, 2025 and October 22, 2025 polls.

Voters were asked about Trump's handling of:

• his job as Commander in Chief of the U.S. military: 43 percent approve, while 53 percent disapprove;
• the economy: 42 percent approve, while 53 percent disapprove;
• U.S. policy toward Venezuela: 41 percent approve, while 52 percent disapprove;
• foreign policy: 41 percent approve, while 56 percent disapprove.

U.S. IN THE WORLD

Half of voters (50 percent) think, under Donald Trump, America's moral authority in the world has gotten weaker, 34 percent think it has gotten stronger, and 13 percent think it has remained about the same.

Forty-six percent of voters think, under Donald Trump, America's leadership in the world has gotten weaker, 42 percent think it has gotten stronger, and 10 percent think it has remained about the same.

Voters 52 - 38 percent do not think it's in the national interest of the United States to expand its power in the western hemisphere, with 10 percent not offering an opinion.

Nearly 9 out of 10 voters (88 percent) think, in general, the United States should work with other nations to solve problems, while 7 percent think the United States should work alone to solve problems.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION APPROVALS

Job approval ratings for six Trump administration officials:

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio: 42 percent approve, 45 percent disapprove, with 13 percent not offering an opinion;
• Vice President J.D. Vance: 41 percent approve, 49 percent disapprove, with 9 percent not offering an opinion;
• Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth: 40 percent approve, 49 percent disapprove, with 11 percent not offering an opinion;
• Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: 39 percent approve, 50 percent disapprove, with 10 percent not offering an opinion;
• White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles: 35 percent approve, 40 percent disapprove, with 25 percent not offering an opinion;
• White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller: 34 percent approve, 44 percent disapprove, with 23 percent not offering an opinion.

1,133 self-identified registered voters nationwide were surveyed from January 8th - 12th with a margin of error of +/- 3.7 percentage points, including the design effect.

The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Doug Schwartz, Ph.D. since 1994, conducts independent, non-partisan national and state polls on politics and issues. Surveys adhere to industry best practices and are based on probability-based samples using random digit dialing with live interviewers calling landlines and cell phones.

China to Get Ready for War with the US in 2026

Hua Bin • January 13, 2026

https://www.unz.com/bhua/china-to-get-ready-for-war-with-the-us-in-2026/

Trump and the US regime is on the move.

After kidnapping (or reverse-ICEing, as some called) Maduro, he openly calls to annex Greenland and attack Iran for its repressed population (seriously? not for the Jews?)

He threatens to send troops to Mexico, and to take care of Colombia and Cuba.

The Orange pirate of the Gulf of USA also threatens 50% tariff on all EU imports and has specifically targeted Spain with threats to make it “pay twice as much” for defense spending.

He is putting a new 25% tariff on importers of Iranian oil, which is specifically about China since Beijing buys over 90% Iranian oil exports.

This is Trump’s way to renege on his deal with President Xi from last October. A snake will be a snake, so par for the course.

Don Trump has obviously also dropped his dishonest effort to broker “peace” between Russia and Ukraine.

Much like his campaign promise to “end the Ukraine war in 24 hours”, his promise not to “do regime-change wars” is just another lie that his MAGA base must start getting used to.

Elect a fraud to presidency – you don’t turn the fraud into a President, you turn the presidency to a fucking joke.

I am not sure whether this proven war criminal is still angling for the Nobel peace prize.

But given the track record of the Nobel committee, they might very well award him that – as if Nobel peace prize means anything!

Just ask Obama.

Yesterday, the command in chief of the USA saw it fit to put out a fake Wikipedia page, announcing himself the “acting president of Venezuela”. On his (alternative) Truth media. Irony in full force.

Even Hitler had the decency and common sense NOT to christen himself the president of Poland, the Netherlands, or France.

Hitler actually conquered those places. Trump merely sent storm troopers to kidnap a sleepy overweight guy after some well targeted bribery to open the gate.

On my trip to Spain, I went to see the Ink against Hitler exhibition at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, showcasing satirical drawings by Catalan artist Mario Armengol against the Third Reich.

It’s hard to not see today’s world in the old propaganda cartoons.

While those escapades happen thousands of kilometers away from China, Beijing is reacting with caution and patience.

However, there are increasing calls on Chinese social media to prepare for war with the US in 2026.

Not merely a renewed trade war, or sustained tech war. But a hot war.

The one common thread tying Trump’s theatrical bravados points in one direction – China.

His moves on Venezuela and Iran are squarely aimed at choke holding China’s oil supply. Beijing buys over 80% of Venezuela’s oil exports and 90% of Iran’s.

Though these purchases represent less than 10% of China’s total oil imports, US control over global oil supply poses a real energy security threat to Beijing.

If the US and Israel subdue Iran in a military conquest, the impact on the Gulf region will be profound. The Gulf sheiks will be completely under the thumbs of the US and Zionist interests.

And China buys a lot of oil from the Gulf.

In addition to an oil blockade, the US is also using open-sea piracy to disrupt China’s global commerce.

Though the news is falling off the radar in light of the sensational Venezuela raid and the rhetorics on Greenland, the US coast guard and navy are actively chasing and boarding oil tankers in international waters, including Russia-flagged ships.

Some of the tankers have Chinese ports as their destinations.

In the US Navy Institute report American Sea Power Project 2026 US-China Scenario, the Pentagon is recommending “hybrid warfare” in the event of a war with China over Taiwan.

While warning the US is likely to suffer defeat in a war along Chinese coast and potential large-scale devastation to US homeland in a protracted war, it calls for disruptions of Chinese global commerce through Prize Law.

Prize law is a legal construct, last used by the US in WW2, that allows its military force to conduct official “visit and search” operations and seize an adversary’s vessels and cargo during an armed conflict.

The plan involves –

1) seizing vessels outside China’s defensive zones, away from its A2AD bubble;

2) depriving China of key resources such as oil and critical minerals;

3) stealing captured vessels to bolster US capacity by redeploying these vessels to support US war operations, addressing its sealift capacity shortfalls. The US ship building capacity is some 230 times smaller than China.

The strategy is outlined in the September 2024 Proceedings article “Prize Law Can Help the United States Win the War of 2026”.

The attacks on oil tankers by the US coast guard and navy in the Caribbean and Atlantic waters today is a dress rehearsal for conducting such piracy against Chinese-owned vessels.

To justify his plan to annex Greenland, Trump blatantly lies about Chinese influence in Greenland, saying “the place is full of Russian and Chinese ships”.

The lie is patently ridiculous.

China’s total trade with Greenland in 2024 was $383 million, about 0.006% of China’s total foreign trade.

China imports $377 million worth of Greenland fish and crustacean products. It exports $6 million worth of commodities, rubber and toys.

So what Chinese ships are all over Greenland?

The invocation of China and Russia in the context of Greenland has nothing to do with their presence on the ground or influence over the island.

It is about blocking any potential Arctic routes for Russia and China as the ice caps melt.

Bottom line – the many seemingly disjointed adventures Trump and the US regime are pursuing are all targeted towards China.

Of course, China won’t fight a war with the US over Venezuela, or Iran, or Greenland. They are beyond China’s power projection capability and outside of its core interests. Unlike the US, China knows its limits.

However, Beijing will not let the US make these moves, cost free.

Commentators in China are calling for the country to get ready to take action on Taiwan in 2026.

Since the new Japanese prime minister has declared Japan would intervene militarily in a Taiwan scenario, China’s preparations will also include war against Japan.

Rather than letting Washington dictate the pace of the US China showdown, an accelerated conflict timetable in Western Pacific will derail US plans to gobble up the western hemisphere and the Middle East.

China has completed the critical assets to enforce its A2AD strategy with new naval capital ships, stealth fighters, unmanned ariel and underwater combat vehicles, as well as a large stockpile of hypersonic missiles.

The odds are heavily in China’s favor in a conflict with the US and its vassals in Western Pacific. And the US military knows that.

There are several clear benefits in taking action on Taiwan now.

First, taking out the weak Taiwan military before the recent $11 billion US arms sales arrive will reduce the cost of later operations.

Among the US arms are ATACMS missiles that can hit Chinese cities. Though easily interceptible, China cannot allow Taiwan to have weapons that can potentially threaten the mainland.

Second, taking over Taiwan can choke off advanced chip supply to the US while Washington is betting its economic future on AI.

Taiwan still supplies 80-90% of the most advanced chips globally from the TSMC fabs in Hsinchu. If Washington wants to stranglehold oil supply, Beijing can cut it off semiconductors.

It’s no secret that Washington has already developed plans to destroy these fabs in the event of a Chinese take-over of Taiwan. They are likely already wired for demolition and definitely high on the target list for US missiles.

But even if these fabs are destroyed, the loss to China is limited. After all, China has already been denied the most advanced TSMC chips by US coercion. It is making rapid progress to develop its own chip supply chains.

On the other hand, the impact on US tech industry will be enormous. Perhaps fatal.

The western media will claim that China has destroyed these fabs, using the same narrative around the Nord Stream.

But once bullets start flying, narrative becomes irrelevant. Physical reality is what counts. Lies won’t win wars.

The third benefit of a military operation over Taiwan is to destroy Tokyo’s plan to remilitarize.

Takaichi and the extreme right in Japan are hoping to use the Taiwan situation as cover to change its constitution and remilitarize, even obtain nuclear weapons.

Trump and the US regime has been prodding Japan down the path as its proxy to fight China.

Takaichi made her remarks about Taiwan being a “survival threatening” issue shortly after her first meeting with Trump last October. https://huabinoliver.substack.com/p/what-happens-if-japan-joins-the-war

Japan recently announced plans to increase its military spending by 100% from 1% of GDP to 2%.

Rather than waiting for the fruits of the toxic tree, in the context of a Taiwan war, China can invoke the UN-sanctioned Enemy States Clauses regarding defeated WW2 countries and deal with Japan before it fully remilitarizes, if Tokyo gets into the fray.

The last benefit is to the nations under US threat right now. A Taiwan operation in 2026 will give pause to US imperial expansion plans.

“Donroe Doctrine” will be history’s laughing stock, as the “Moron Doctrine”.

A defeat in a direct China US war over Taiwan will teach Washington some humility. Remember Korea?

If the US cowards out and doesn’t fight, then its credibility as the top bully is over.

There is probably no better way for China to assist countries like Venezuela, Iran, Colombia or Cuba whom China considers valuable members in a multi-polar world order.

Trump recently announced the US will spend $1.5 trillion on its military next year. That will raise its war spending from 3.5% of GDP to a full 5%.

A $1.5 trillion military budget means the US will spend more than the rest of the world combined on war making.

The country already has an enviable $38 trillion debt. So another couple of trillion is no biggie.

There is an old Chinese saying “dead pig is not afraid of boiling water”. We know who is the dead pig. My sorrow goes to its creditors.

China currently only spends less than 1.7% GDP on defense. To match US spending level of 5%, China will need to have a $1 trillion defense budget.

Given Pentagon purchasing department has admitted Chinese defense purchasing power vs the US is 3 to 1, that would give China a defense budget effectively double the US.

Now it’s gloves-off time. Let the party start.

Making Imperialism Great Again?

by Ron Paul | Jan 13, 2026 

https://original.antiwar.com/paul/2026/01/12/making-imperialism-great-again/

It did not take long for President Trump to change the reason for sending the US military to “arrest” Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. The allegation that President Maduro ran a drug cartel was front and center in the months leading up to President Maduro’s “arrest.” Afterwards, President Trump said the invasion was about Venezuela’s oil and announced plans for the US government to send American oil companies into Venezuela.

About a week after the invasion, President Trump had a meeting with executives from American oil companies to discuss plans for Venezuela. Some of the companies’ executives at the meeting were less than enthusiastic about developing Venezuelan oil. One reason for this is that, since the Venezuelan government nationalized oil activities twenty years ago, fracking has made the US the world’s leading producer of oil and natural gas. Rebuilding the oil industry in Venezuela could cost as much as a billion dollars for an uncertain payoff. Among the complications, Venezuelan oil does not easily flow though pipelines unless it is cut with solvents, making it more expensive to transport.

In his first press conference after the Venezuelan first couple was seized, President Trump said: “We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.” He later stated that Maduro’s successor Vice President Delcy Rodriguez would “pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” if she does not adequately fulfill the US government’s demands.

Following the invasion of Venezuela, there have been suggestions that President Trump will direct the US military to invade other countries as well. For example, Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio said, “if I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned.”

To no one’ s surprise, Senator Lindsey Graham was delighted by the possibility that Venezuela was just the first of many regime change wars President Trump will wage. Senator Graham even got President Trump to autograph a Make Iran Great Again hat. Many Iranian victims of the Shah of Iran’s secret police might disagree with Senator Graham on whether having the CIA install another puppet government in Iran will make that country great.

President Trump’s newfound love of regime change wars may be one reason why he is seeking to increase the military budget to 1.5 trillion dollars. President Trump claims that tariff revenue can fund the increase, but that is simply not possible. The majority of the increase in spending would come from other taxes, including the Federal Reserve’s regressive and hidden inflation tax.

A recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that there is much less support for an “activist” US foreign policy among Americans under 50 than among older Americans. This is the case among both Democrats and Republicans. In fact, the differing view on foreign policy among younger people was a major factor behind President Trump’s support from younger people in 2024. Continued betrayal by President Trump of his no more regime change wars pledge will cause the president and the Republicans to lose support among younger voters.

Trump says US will take Greenland 'one way or the other'

AFP

Mon, January 12, 2026

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-says-us-greenland-one-075538408.html

President Donald Trump said Sunday the United States would take Greenland "one way or the other," warning that Russia and China would "take over" if Washington didn't act.

Trump says controlling the mineral-rich Danish territory is crucial for US national security given increased Russian and Chinese military activity in the Arctic.

"If we don't take Greenland, Russia or China will, and I'm not letting that happen," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, despite neither country laying claim to the vast island.

Trump said he would be open to making a deal with the Danish self-governing territory "but one way or the other, we're going to have Greenland."

Denmark and other European allies have voiced shock at Trump's threats over the island, which plays a strategic role between North America and the Arctic, and where the United States has had a military base since World War II.

A Danish colony until 1953, Greenland gained home rule 26 years later and is contemplating eventually loosening its ties with Denmark.

The vast majority of its population and political parties have said they do not want to be under US control and insist Greenlanders must decide their own future -- a viewpoint continuously challenged by Trump.

"Greenland should make the deal, because Greenland does not want to see Russia or China take over," Trump warned, as he mocked its defenses.

"You know what their defense is, two dog sleds," he said, while Russia and China have "destroyers and submarines all over the place."

Denmark's prime minister warned last week that any US move to take Greenland by force would destroy 80 years of transatlantic security links.

Trump waved off the comment saying: "If it affects NATO, it affects NATO. But you know, (Greenland) need us much more than we need them."

As genocide continues in Gaza, the West Bank is pushed into a new Nakba

By Penny Green

11 January 2026

Israel's destruction of refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarm is severing families from their homes, emptying communities and accelerating Palestinian erasure

https://www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/genocide-continues-gaza-west-bank-pushed-new-nakba

Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people has never been confined to Gaza alone.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the shattered, bomb-scarred, ghostlike refugee camps of Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarm, destroyed and emptied by Israel as a stark warning to Palestinians of the consequences of resisting occupation and genocide.

This decades-long settler colonial project in Palestine has multiple planes of erasure. While the world has, albeit through a distorted lens, focused on the catastrophe wrought upon Gaza, Israel has ensured that its plans for Palestinian elimination proceed apace in the West Bank.

Settlement expansion, settler attacks on farmers under the protection of Israeli forces, the routine theft of livestock, the destruction of village schools and homes and the forced displacement of Palestinians in the East Jerusalem neighbourhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan all amount to systematic attempts to destroy, in whole or part, the Palestinian people and their relationship to their ancient homeland.

During a recent visit to the northern West Bank, I witnessed the physical destruction of refugee camps and was struck by how closely the lives of Palestinians there mirror the devastation faced by refugees in Gaza.

It was a glaring reminder that this genocide targets all Palestinians across historic Palestine.

Between 21 January and 9 February 2025, Israel launched Operation Iron Wall, targeting alleged "terrorist elements" in three refugee camps in the northern West Bank.

The head of the Nur Shams Public Committee, Nihad Shawish, 52, told us: "Just as in Gaza, they are trying to claim the camp is a centre for terrorism. But in reality, the resistance is just a few people looking for freedom." And, just as in Gaza, all Palestinians are conceptualised by Israel as "terrorists" and targets for elimination.

During the 19-day operation, around 40,000 refugees from the camps of Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams were forcibly removed from their homes by heavily armed Israeli special forces using armoured vehicles, drones and bulldozers.

Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has described the Israeli offensive as "the longest and most extensive displacement crisis since 1967". It estimates that 43 percent of Jenin, 35 percent of Nur Shams and 14 percent of Tulkarm refugee camps have been destroyed or severely damaged.

Buildings on either side of the lanes in Nur Shams camp, which extended from the main road between Nur Shams and Tulkarm up to the top of the camp, were bombed or bulldozed to widen two-metre alleys into 12-metre tank-accessible thoroughfares. Every inhabitant was expelled.

Apartheid journeys

The journey itself to these devastated camps exposes, at every turn, the brutal reality of Israeli apartheid.

Travelling through the West Bank is a daily endurance challenge for Palestinians. An apartheid road system means that while illegal Israeli settlements are connected by unfettered highways to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Palestinians are forced to travel on rough, circuitous roads and pass through tunnels blocked by endless checkpoints and stark yellow barrier gates.

A journey that would take 20 minutes on settler roads takes three hours or longer for Palestinians.

En route from Ramallah to Tulkarm, we encountered a new spectacle of Israeli supremacism: enormous Israeli flags lining both sides of the highway every 10 metres. To outside observers, they may reflect deepening Israeli insecurity, but for Palestinians, they are simply another form of intimidation.

We passed the beautiful village of Sinjal, now encircled by 30-metre-high layers of razor wire. All but two entrances have been permanently sealed by Israel, while the remaining two may be closed at any moment at the whim of Israeli forces. Villagers have no explanation as to why they have been targeted so viciously beyond "another act of occupation".

The settlement project has expanded dramatically since my last visit in 2022.

Emboldened by global impunity and a far-right government in which settlers hold key ministries, Israel has approved the legalisation or construction of 69 new settlements.

"We're advancing de facto sovereignty," Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared as he announced plans for more than 3,400 settlement homes in the E1 project, which would link vast settlement blocs in occupied East Jerusalem to Maale Adumim, thus physically isolating Palestinians in East Jerusalem from those in the occupied West Bank.

We drove past the large and expanding illegal settlement of Eli, perched on a hill with its ghastly red-roofed houses themselves a statement of genocidal intent, a threat to the well-being of local Palestinian villagers who have seen their olive trees uprooted and faced violent attacks.

Eli is also known for its Bnei David pre-military academy, which trains settlers for officer positions in elite combat units.

We passed petrol stations Palestinians are forbidden to use, and new outposts disfiguring ancient terraces and olive groves. These ugly illegal outposts will inevitably expand into ugly illegal settlements.

A nearby road we could see but not access would have brought us to our destination in Tulkarm in less than half the time. But Israel has barred all Palestinians from it.

Instead, we travelled rough roads, stopping at unpredictable checkpoints where threatening young soldiers determined whether our journey would continue or end. At one point, we took an alternative route to avoid another closure.

These cumulative acts of apartheid are designed to make Palestinian life so unbearable that people will be driven to leave their land.

Gaza in the West Bank

Driving along a rough gravel road, we eventually reached Tulkarm. The ruins of Nur Shams refugee camp lay on our left, its entire population forcibly expelled in January.

The camp is now an eerie ghost town, with about a third of its buildings completely or largely destroyed. Great empty swathes have been cut through the heart of Nur Shams by Israeli bulldozers. Hundreds upon hundreds of homes were demolished ostensibly to create armoured vehicle and tank access.

A blue Star of David had been spray-painted on what was once the home of a Palestinian refugee, now used as a military base. No one else remains. As I climbed a mound to take a photograph, two passers-by urgently warned me to step down. "Snipers shoot at anyone and without warning," they called out.

Refugees described how, as soon as they invaded the camps, Israeli forces cut off all communication and utilities. Internet, electricity and water disappeared instantly. These displaced refugees were evicted to a literal nowhere. Some found relatives to stay with, while many more sought shelter in mosques, abandoned schools, wedding halls and other public spaces. They now live at the margins of survival.

"It was just like the Nakba, especially as we didn't know where we were heading... no one knew where we were being forced to go," said Nihad.

Refugees sheltering in the unfinished El Muowahad School in Thenaba village, between Nur Shams and Tulkarm, described the terror of heavily armed raids, Apache attack helicopters overhead, exploding suicide drones and the frantic flight from their homes with only the clothes on their backs.

"They started blowing up our houses on 26 January, and in seven days the camp was completely emptied," recalled Khaled, 50, sitting exhausted on a plastic chair in the school corridor he shares with 21 families from Tulkarm camp.

"Nobody expected this," he continued. "I didn't even get one T-shirt from my home. It's demolished now." Houses left standing were set on fire. Evictions were brutal. "Even when the Red Crescent gave us the medicine we needed, soldiers snatched it from us and threw it to the ground," Hakem told us, adding that more than 1,800 homes in the Tulkarm camp were destroyed.

For nearly 12 months, 122 displaced refugees have lived in the unfinished school, sharing cramped rooms of 10 to 12 people. "Facilities are minimal or non-existent," Khaled explained.

"When we arrived, there was no electricity, so we connected it ourselves." On the ground floor, four toilets are shared by all men, women and children. There is only one shower. "Like prisoners, we all stand in a line," he added. 

One washing machine serves all families. Clothes hang from every railing as people cling to small pieces of routine while their camp lies in ruins metres away.

"Camp life was hard," Nadia, 38, told me, “But not as hard as this."

Dystopian landscape

In Tulkarm and Nur Shams, the already dire conditions for refugees continue to deteriorate. Unrwa initially provided food and services, but this has stopped as Israel's prohibition on its operations in the occupied Palestinian territories takes hold.

"My fridge is empty," Hakem told us. "We all used to work in the occupied cities from Jaffa to Haifa, Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Now we are living under siege with no possibility of work."

They are also forbidden by military order from rebuilding their destroyed homes. "I just want to go back and live on the rubble of my home," Hakem said. "What else can we do?"

Nadia showed me a video taken by a neighbour after the camp was emptied. The only sounds in this dystopian landscape were footsteps crunching over debris and the eerie noise of birdsong.

Hasan Khreisheh, a Tulkarm politician working with the displaced families, described what has happened in the northern West Bank camps as following Israel's blueprint in Gaza, but in a form of "silent elimination".

For 17-year-old Ayhem, whose education ended when his home was demolished and his family was forced out: "It's very similar to what has happened in Gaza. When I see Gaza on television, I see exactly what we are experiencing." He sleeps with nine family members in one small school room. "I have no social life. My friends have all been forced into different areas, and my best friend was killed. I have lost everything."

Near the school stands what remains of the Nur Shams Public Committee office. Despite the trauma they have experienced, 10 volunteers continue working to support those expelled from the camp. From its roof terrace, we looked out over the devastation of what had once been their homes.

"My house is uninhabitable," said Fatma, 70, "but I am ready to go and live above the rubble. The dignity of humans is in the home. I can see my house from here, but I cannot reach it."

Nihad, the head of the Committee, described the scale of the military assault. Israel's campaign inside the six neighbourhoods of Nur Shams began on 9 January. Hundreds of soldiers, tanks, military vehicles and drones stormed the camp, forcing out every resident.

"Anyone who refused was shot outside their house to encourage people to leave," he said. "The forces controlled the routes we could take. We were forced into a line and filmed by drones. Anyone who stepped outside the line would be shot."

"The Israeli occupation decided to finish the camps," he continued. "In Nur Shams, with a population of 13,000, we had 400 buildings. Each building had multiple levels and housing units. Even if a house wasn't demolished with bulldozers and explosions, the forces set fire to it to make it uninhabitable. Around 2,300 families were forced to leave, and 70 percent of them are living in poverty."

"There is no water, no electricity inside the camps. No sewage pipes, no streets. The whole infrastructure has been destroyed," Fatma added.

Nihad put it bluntly: "The camp has been assassinated."

They also targeted and destroyed the youth centre, the kindergarten, the wedding hall and the disability centre.

'Return to rubble'

Fatma, a highly respected leader of the Nur Shams community, described her experience on the morning of the attack: "They came at 7am on 9 February. They were already inside the camp. They demolished half my house, but we stayed. They used one of our neighbours as a human shield. They came with dogs to search. Then they took over our home and used it as a military barracks. At the end of the day, there were maybe 100 soldiers in my house."

Fatma has cancer. Soldiers tore up her medical notes and destroyed her water tank. "Our small television was shot. They destroyed my washing machine and fridge, which I hadn't finished paying for."

As they destroyed homes, livelihoods and community spaces, Israeli soldiers had also committed a range of other crimes, including openly looting.

"In front of our eyes, they stole our things," Fatma said. "They took my purse and stole the 2,650 shekels I had been given by a Hebron foundation to repair my house, as well as two gold rings, a necklace, a bracelet and a medal."

Despite many refugees saying they would "return to the rubble", the reality is bleak. The destruction of the camps, the expulsion of their residents and Israel's broader drive to remove Palestinians from their land mean their chances of returning are remote.

"'Returning to the rubble' is just a slogan," said Khaled. "How can we go back? Israeli forces will choose who can return, and anyone with links to fighters will never be allowed to. Every day, there is a new decision targeting the families of resistance fighters. And every day they are subjected to collective punishment."

Khreisheh noted that Israel recently announced that some refugees might be permitted to return, except "the families of those martyred, those injured, imprisoned or involved in politics". This would, in practice, exclude almost everyone.

Even renting elsewhere in the West Bank has become increasingly difficult for displaced Palestinians. "We have no money and no place to go," Khaled said. But poverty is only part of the problem. Landlords fear renting to camp refugees.

"Whenever we try to rent a home," he explained, "they first count us, then ask where we are from. When we say 'Nur Shams' or 'Tulkarm camp', they invariably respond: 'I don't rent my house to anyone from the camps.' In some ways, I understand. If any relative is in prison, is a fighter or was killed, landlords fear raids. So they don't rent to us."

Everyone is a refugee

All inhabitants of the camps are refugees, their status derived from the mass expulsions of the 1948 Nakba and Israel's 1967 war.

Refugee status, which rightly traverses generations, is inseparable from the Palestinian right of return. Through international law and at least five UN resolutions, including Article 11 of UN General Assembly Resolution 194, Palestinians are guaranteed the right to return to the lands from which they were displaced.

A core element of Israel's project has always been to prevent the refugees of 1948 and their descendants from returning to their homes.

Yet every refugee I spoke with viewed their status as the ultimate guarantor of return.

More than seven million Palestinian refugees live in exile worldwide. For Israel, the possibility of their return is a demographic nightmare, and it seeks to prevent it at all costs.

Khreisheh was clear that the destruction of the West Bank refugee camps is part of a broader genocidal project to eliminate the very idea of the refugee camp and the political status it confers. Many others echoed this.

"Refugees and their descendants are the only witnesses of the 1948 Nakba," several told me, "and now Israel wants to eliminate the witness camps and eliminate the Palestinian issue."

"You will find a sad and painful story from everyone who fled," one refugee said. "Homes and land grabbed. They have repeated what happened in 1948. The scene is repeating itself."

"We are moving from pain to pain," another added. "This occupation wants to eradicate people from the land. They want to get rid of all the witnesses to the crimes committed since 1948."

The destruction of Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarm camps is a calculated act of genocide. By destroying communities, dismantling Unrwa and expelling refugees, Israel seeks not only to dispossess Palestinians of their homes, but to extinguish their history, rights and future claims to justice, including the right of return.

As Nihad said: "They want to end refugee status by eliminating the camp, destroying the possibility of the right of return and, by extension, any possibility of Palestinian self-determination."

"In Nur Shams, our goal is not just to go back to the camp but to go back to our family villages. This is our historic right. We will never depart from this right. The camp is just a station for us. We all hope to return to our homelands."