Tom Cotton Claims Buying Greenland Was His Idea, Blames ‘Trump Derangement’ for Public’s Reaction

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is claiming credit for planting the idea of buying Greenland in President Trump’s head.

Cotton told an interviewer from Talk Business and Politics, a news site in Arkansas, that he had brought up the idea with Denmark’s ambassador to the United States several months ago.

The senator argued that possessing Greenland, which is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, is “the right decision” for America and anyone who disagrees is simply “blinded by Trump derangement.”

He also pointed several times to efforts by President Harry Truman to purchase Greenland in 1946, saying that “there’s a reason why Harry Truman 70 years ago recognized this was an obvious advantage to the American people.”

What he did not mention is that Truman’s reason was that as the Cold War was getting underway in 1946, his advisors saw Greenland as a military check on a possibly expansionist Soviet Union. Military bases there might deter an invasion fleet from sailing through the North Atlantic, while planes based there could intercept Soviet bombers that might try to fly over the Arctic Circle towards America.

Obviously, an expansionist Soviet Union is no longer a threat. Russia under Vladimir Putin is more concerned with its immediate sphere of influence and does not have the military capacity to expand beyond that.

Still, Cotton called Greenland important to America’s defense posture. But important enough to pay $600 million a year to Denmark in perpetuity, which was reportedly part of the Trump administration’s plan?

Read more about Cotton’s interview here.