What of Greenland? Will Americans be treated to images of sullen Inuits watching Marines land on their beaches and set up tent camps and a Pizza Hut? In Iraq and Afghanistan, successive American administrations were careful to assure people that they were conquering in order to expel dictators and bring democracy to oppressed peoples. It was a fig leaf, of course, but it reinforced the white-hat image Americans have of themselves, and gave the military a clean sense of purpose.
But Greenland, Panama and Canada already have working democracies; an American invasion of any would be just that: an invasion, one they will resent, and probably resist. Already Canadians are unhappy with Americans: take a look at this U.S.-Canada hockey game. Trump may think that expansion is as wonderful in politics as in business, but his countrymen will abhor any force, economic or military, used against these peaceful, inoffensive peoples -- that's for the likes of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. A people who consider their military a force that defends their freedom will not recognize its legitimacy in taking over other countries.
And then there's Israel. At this writing, it seems that once a certain number of hostages have been released, the rest will be written off: their families will have to settle for a stylish memorial with the victims' names carved on it. After that, the Israelis will "finish the job". And again, Americans will find themselves dragged along in this blood-fest of manifest destiny, ever more conscious of Jewish power in their politics, and aghast at the blanket suppression of lawful protest: it's turning out that even the good ol' First Amendment just ain't what it used to be.
Which leads to the next shock: the purpose of government itself. Americans shrug ignorantly at the mass firing of seventeen inspectors general, civil servants are treated as useless chattel and laid off by the thousand, and Trump has promised 80,000 job cuts in Veterans Administration. The message to the public is that the government is getting out of the public service business. Ronald Reagan's little revolution back in the Eighties -- "Government is the problem, not the solution!" -- meant that there were fewer services and fewer rules. With Trump, services will be whittled down to the politically indispensable, and rules, well, rules will just be whatever they say they are -- this is in the spirit of enlarging individual freedom.
Elon Musk has no more understanding of Americans -- or government -- than Trump. According to the New York Times, Musk recently defended his performance at Trump's first Cabinet meeting, "reminding the cabinet secretaries that he had built multiple billion-dollar companies from the ground up and knew something about hiring good people". Doesn't that single sentence perfectly summarize the rich? "Because I've built companies and become wealthy, my intelligence is evidently fit for all purposes." It is of a piece with Trump's nihilistic message that brilliant people (like him and Elon) can remake or eliminate the rules -- who needs those bums in Congress? -- and that will be good for everyone.
Americans, however, are a law-and-order, rules-based people. Already there is enormous public hatred of big companies. Look at the outpouring of support for Luigi Mangione, who killed a healthcare executive. Americans view freedom, among other things, as protection from the rich and powerful. What will they think when consumer protection falls even further?
So imagine the panorama towards the end of Trump's term: Israel in charge "from the river to the sea", the Palestinians having been chased out carrying their babies and mattresses; Canada the fifty-first and angriest state, the Americas upset about the aggression against Panama, Europe no longer on speaking terms with America and making up with Russia in order to re-start their economy, and a paradise for big companies who have cut their payrolls way back because AI allows them to.
The liberal mainstream media, if not outlawed, will run amok pointing out the lack of good professional jobs, the about-face in foreign policy, the rising homelessness and income inequality, phones unanswered in government agencies, and a rising tide of other injustices in public life. Protest will be either outlawed or censored. Americans will scarcely recognize themselves.
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