At the January meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, President Trump again changed tack by declaring that, if a price can be settled by diplomatic negotiation, the USA will not use military force to obtain sovereignty over Greenland or impose punitive tariffs on opponent countries.

Inflation since 1951 has averaged 3.42% yearly so the offer made then would now have a value of USD 1,250,000,000. However, this would need to be substantially increased to include an estimate of the extent to which rare earths, battery metals and other mineral wealth may lie below the surface.

Of course, the indigenous populace has not been consulted in what has now become a gigantic real estate deal proposed by the world´s supreme wheeler/dealer to a cowed Denmark and its NATO allies. Indeed, the autochthonous people of the Americas and the Antipodes have recalled with bitter memory how their own oppressed history is mirrored by this prospect of the Innuits being bartered like chattels by a tiny Kingdom which somehow exercises colonial sovereignty over a landmass fifty larger than its own (43,000 km2).

The situation is not without precedent. In 1917 the US government paid USD 25 million in gold to the kingdom of Denmark for the Virgin Islands whereupon the native islanders (with their possessions) became citizens, and the property, of the USA.

Spurred on by the tech-titans and financiers of industry who now control the real power of the USA, President Trump and his acolytes should be able this year to achieve the philosophic aims of MAGA by expanding the policy of territorial acquisition which began in the 19th century with Florida, New Mexico and Hawaii.

No mention was been made in Davos of the Azores islands as being on the Trumpian shopping list for “mergers and acquisitions”. However, what has become clear in this portentous conflict of super-state poker, is that the Portuguese will not be offered a place at the table when the micro-chips are finally called in by this intelligent but artificial dealer.

The canny president for life of the new global Monopoly Board of Peace is now intent, “one way or another”, on seizing the freeholds of his former allies without fear of Going to Jail. To quote the prime minister of Canada. “if smaller powers are not seated at the table, they will be on the menu”.

The use of military force to obtain control of the Azores is a remote possibility. What is more likely is that omnipotent US mining companies will commence exploitation of the mineral wealth of the seabed in the exclusive economic zone with flagrant disregard of both the International Sea Authority and the EU.

A craftier approach would be to deploy subversive agents of the CIA and influencers of social media to support a political campaign for a referendum of the Azorean voters which will seek full independence from Portugal. If the people voted democratically to become citizens of the USA, with each receiving a golden handshake, neither Portugal nor the EU would be able to withstand processes initiated by the USA to safeguard its Homeland Security and Economy.

by Roberto Cavaleiro - Tomar