Right hand not knowing what left hand is doing.
President Trump announced on Thursday that the United States would deploy 5,000 troops to Poland, despite the Pentagon’s decision a week ago to cancel the deployment of thousands of U.S. troops there.
In a social media post that caught Pentagon officials by surprise, Mr. Trump suggested that he was making the move “based on the successful election” of Karol Nawrocki, Poland’s conservative nationalist president whom Mr. Trump endorsed in his election — nearly a year ago.
Mr. Trump’s apparent reversal of the Defense Department’s decision was the latest in series of head-snapping announcements that have stunned leaders of Poland, one of the administration’s staunchest allies in Europe, and drawn intense bipartisan criticism from lawmakers who said troop cuts in Eastern Europe would send the wrong signal to Russia.
(NYT)
And Greenland say FO again.
Greenlanders held a spirited protest on Thursday against the opening of a new American Consulate building in downtown Nuuk, Greenland’s capital.
In line with President Trump’s fixation on Greenland, the United States has moved to a much bigger and more visible diplomatic post in Nuuk, part of an upgraded strategy to expand the American presence on the Arctic island.
But many Greenlanders don’t like it.
On Thursday, hundreds marched through Nuuk’s streets carrying signs reading “We don’t want your money” and “Greenlanders know a MAGA Trojan horse when we see one.”
As guests inside the consulate nibbled on musk ox hot dogs, demonstrators stood in the streets yelling, “Go away!”
The opening ceremony for the new building took place just days after President Trump’s special envoy to Greenland, Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana, made a ham-handed trip to Nuuk in which he offered chocolate chip cookies and red MAGA hats to people he met on the street. He didn’t get many takers, and Greenlandic officials criticized the visit.
(NYT)