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The New York Times interviewed Trump on why he wants to own Greenland and why security agreements and cooperation are not good enough: The president’s insistence that Greenland must become part of the United States was a prime example of his worldview. It was not enough to exercise the U.S. right, under a 1951 treaty, to reopen long-closed military bases on the huge landmass, which is a strategically important crossroads for U.S., European, Chinese and Russian naval operations. The president’s insistence that Greenland must become part of the United States was a prime example of his worldview. “Ownership is very important,” Mr. Trump said as he discussed, with a real estate mogul’s eye, the landmass of Greenland — three times the size of Texas but with a population of less than 60,000. He seemed to dismiss the value of having Greenland under the control of a close NATO ally. When asked why he needed to possess the territory, he said: “Because that’s what I feel is psychologically needed for success. I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can’t do, whether you’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document.” In other words, it's not about national security concerns or not having access to rare earth minerals - it's all about feeling good about having a piece of paper that says he owns it.

That’s true but Trump’s focus is now on the Western hemisphere and he’s pretty short sighted when it comes to strategic thinking. Hopefully his more level headed military advisors would stop him walking away completely. Even so, his instinct is to reduce his overseas forces and get the NATO countries to make up the shortfall.

I'm not sure that would be the most useful response.

Trump would see that as a good outcome. He doesn't believe in alliances generally, and only has contempt for NATO.

Here's professional racist, aspiring standover merchant and Trump mentor Stephen Miller explaining how the US administration currently sees the world: Stephen Miller, a top aide to President Trump, asserted on Monday that Greenland rightfully belonged to the United States and that the Trump administration could seize the semiautonomous Danish territory if it wanted. “Nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland,” Mr. Miller told Jake Tapper, the CNN host, after being asked repeatedly whether he would rule out using military force. According to Mr. Miller, using brute force is not only on the table but also the Trump administration’s preferred way to conduct itself on the world stage. “We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,” Mr. Miller told Jake Tapper of CNN on Monday, during a combative appearance in which he was pressed on Mr. Trump’s long-held desire to control Greenland. “These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time,” he said.

Venezuela's current production is only about one million barrels per day, which is a drop in the bucket and certainly won't bother China very much. Estimates are that to get it up to even 1.5m bpd would cost about $7 billion and take 2 years. Chevron is the only major US producer with a significant footprint in the country, and Trump can't simply order other US producers to move into a politically unstable country and spend billions of dollars ramping up production as he claims, even if they are led by his cronies. At the end of the day they have turn a profit for their shareholders, and even if Venezuela is sitting on 303 billion barrels of oil, which the US doesn't own anyway, time is not on Donald's side in getting his hands on it in his political lifetime. At the end of the day, they may have Maduro in jail but not much else to show for their efforts.

Well, at least we know how Trump sees South America - simply as the southern part of North America with the Gulf of America in the middle.

It's generally accepted that Maduro was every bit as bad as his reputation suggested and his demise is welcomed by most of the population. However, Trump is far more interested in getting his hands on Venezuela's oil than in restoring democracy. He will prop up whoever he thinks will facilitate access for American companies to get their hands on the oil reserves. Like Canada, Venezuela has the heavy crude that US refineries are set up to process. The US produces a lighter grade that doesn't suit their refineries and most of Venezuela's current limited output goes to China which is another reason he wants the oil. His biggest problem will be that US companies will be very wary of pouring a lot of infrastructure development money into a country that is politically unstable. Even if they did, it would take years to get a significant increase in production because the existing infrastructure is in such bad shape.

They are, but a lot are celebrating very quietly because Maduro's regime is still in control and nobody knows what's coming next, least of all Trump.

His prospects for a Nobel Peace prize are starting to look a bit bleak, but on the positive side his prospects for a referral to the International Criminal Court are looking much better.

Very few people would be sorry to see Maduro go, but what happens now? Trump said the US is going to ‘run the country’ until they get a suitable government installed. They are also going to manage the oil production. Sounds like a recipe for chaos, especially if fighting breaks out between rival political factions.

I'm not sure this will go down all that well with the MAGA crowd, even if the only aim was to get Maduro (oh.. and all that oil of course). They thought they'd voted for a Nobel prize-winning Peace President.

No real surprise. He's been talking about it for weeks. Apparently they've captured Maduro and his wife and flown them out of the country. I wonder if that's legal?

Why should they take any notice of that unless he props them up with cash handouts?

I hope he did. He signed off the drawings so he may be taking a risk if he didn’t. On the other hand most modified/re-purposed buildings don’t fail mainly because they never see their full design loads. You could say they rely more on a factor of ignorance than a factor of safety. I bought a hangar built from recycled materials that falls into that category.