Judging Freedom - Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : Diplomacy by Insult — Trump and Norway

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : Diplomacy by Insult — Trump and NorwaySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Undeclared wars are commonplace. Pragically, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression with no complaints from the American people. Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government. To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected. What if sometimes to love your country you had to alter or abolish the government? Jefferson was right? What if that government is best, which governs least? What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong? What if it is better to perish fighting

for freedom than to live as a slave? What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now? Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for judging freedom. Today is Wednesday, January 21st, 2006, Professor Jeffrey Sachs joins us now. Professor Sachs, thank you very much. I want to talk to you about what we've characterized as diplomacy by insult. By what legal authority or diplomatic precedent or moral principle can the head of state of one government insist upon the removal of the head of state of another government, which poses no national security threat? Well, of course, none. And we even have a treaty, the UN Charter, which explicitly rejects the use of force or the threat of the use of force against another country. That's the core of international law, which, of course, our president has fully and explicitly repudiated.

They've declared that this is the rule. of the mighty and that they're not bound by anything but the president's mind himself. It's an extraordinary situation where we have a delusional president and no sense of law or propriety or decency. And the president spouts off at any moment at any time against anybody. And it's one large whining sense of aggrievement that everyone's cheating him, everyone's cheating the United States. Everyone is taking advantage. It's an incredible long wine, like a three-year-old. This is what we have right now. Can anybody look at him seriously after, Chris, I think we have this as a full screen, President Trump's email to the Prime Minister of Norway.

There it is. Dear Jonas, considering your country, decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped eight wars plus, I no longer feel an obligation to think of peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land. He's referring to Greenland from Russia or China. There's no sense reading the rest of it. The insulting part was the part that I read.

How could anybody look at them seriously after that? I think we've known three things. One, the United States chronically misbehaves. It overthrows governments. It makes wars on false pretenses. So that's the long, deep, situation. Second, we've known that Trump will make threats and repeated threats all over the place. But I think what we're all trying to come to grips with is has something really cracked.

Is there something profoundly psychologically wrong at the moment, not just the thuggery, not just the threats, but something more than that, because the last few weeks have been completely unhinged, not only in the attacks that the United States has made, but in the bravado, the giddiness, the threats to everybody, the wild tariffs, the claims that Greenland is ours, and on and on and on. It seems just based on the last few minutes that Trump said, well, we won't take Greenland by force. Probably, if I could guess, because the stock market went down yesterday. And maybe that's the only thing that interests the president is his personal wealth. And so maybe, maybe that is the one last guardrail that we have.

We don't seem to have a guardrail of decency, of behavior like an adult, to whine about not getting the Nobel Prize. It's something you would teach your children, hold it in. You don't get everything you want. Try to hold it together. but what we have is a kind of decompensation, it seems to me, at a personal level. But maybe Trump was pulled aside by Bessent or somebody and explained, Mr. President, your remarks yesterday led to a big drop of the stock market. So try to say something. Maybe he knew what he was going to say, so somebody's front running the market as it recovers on his remarks.

it's all a game in that way. But Mike, he has pulled the world into a whipsaw that is crazy, and it may well be crazy. We've not seen any behavior like this by any American president in modern times. I don't know who would believe him when he says we're not going to use force. I remember him inviting the Iranian negotiators to negotiate with those two real estate. state agents that he sends out to negotiate for him. And then within 24 hours, the United States and Israel were bombing Iran. Yeah, that was last June. It was supposed to be the sixth round of

negotiations on Sunday, and Friday the bombing began. So it's absolutely incredible. No, nobody can believe him on anything. He's whimsical. He's unstable. He's chronically confabulating. Whether he believes the words he says or not is actually at this point unknowable, but perhaps irrelevant because they don't mean much. Here's the reaction on the floor of the House of Commons to his latest statements. This is yesterday. This is a leading member of Prime Minister Stormers party. He's not exactly Anthony Wedgwood Ben pleading for the plague of the Palestinians. He doesn't have that passion, but it's very clear what his point is.

Chris cut number 16. Madam Deputy Speaker, President Trump is acting like an international gangster. Yeah. Threatened to trample over the sovereignty of an ally, threatening the end of NATO altogether. are now threatening to hit our country and seven European allies with outrageous, damaging tariffs, unless he gets his hands on Greenland. The present of the United States is attacking our economy, our livelihoods and our national security.

The only people cheering him on are Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. We have to finally be clear-eyed about the sort of man Trump is and treat him accordingly. A bully. He thinks he can grab whatever he wants using force if necessary. And he is corrupt. The most corrupt present the United States has ever seen. So there are only two ways of getting him to back down, bribing him with a new debt, jet perhaps, or a few billionaires crypto account, or standing up to him like we would with any other bully. I mean, is that going to animate Great Britain or the remainder of NATO or the EU to do something other than just roll over?

I want to say something a little bit as background. Britain is a bully. A lot of the Europeans complaining are bullies. They've all been complicit in. the genocide in Gaza, they stand mute when the U.S. and Israel bomb, Iran, they play all sorts of games. What is energized the Europeans is that it turned on them. Not the bullying and the creepiness, but the fact that it is now turned on Europe. Now, of course, I agree. substance. It is grotesque what Trump has been saying, what he's doing, what he's threatening.

I think it's brazenly unconstitutional, brazenly illegal. But I do want to point out that had the Europeans had some principles all along, maybe they would have criticized not just this president, but the long list of war crimes of all of our recent presidents. But instead, they participated in them. What is suddenly energized the Europeans is that it's now directed towards them. I can give you, by the way, another example of this. When Israel and the United States bombed Iran, a blatantly vulgar action, completely contrary to international law, completely contrary to international law,

completely contrary to U.S. law, just a reckless escapade. There was a UN Security Council meeting, and I attended it, and the ambassador of Denmark told the Iranians who had just been bombed, you must show restraint. And the Danish ambassador did not mention the fact that she was directing her animus towards a country that had just been bombed. because she didn't mention that Israel had done the bombing and the United States had done the bombing. I thought it was pretty strange. So I went up to the ambassador afterwards and I said to her that maybe you should have mentioned that Iran was bombed. And she peremptorily turned around and walked away. She didn't want to hear it from me. But my point is now the U.S. is threatening Denmark. Of course, I find it repelling. I want to be perfectly clear about this. But the Europeans go along or went along with a lot of repellent behavior by the United States when it was repellent towards someone else.

The New York Times yesterday said that the U.S. looks like it's behaving like an empire. And I just had to chuckle and grimace in a way. it's been behaving like an empire for decades, but against the Palestinians or against the Iranians or against the Sudanese or against the Libyans. That doesn't count until it's against the Europeans. So we should also wake up. The British should wake up. Everybody should behave themselves. This is a dangerous world and it has been dangerous and getting more and more dangerous even before Trump's rant on Greenland. Now the Europeans are worried because it's directed towards them. They should have been worried a long time ago. I'm hoping that people could learn to think

a little bit beyond their most immediate self-interest and actually reflect on the broader development in the world, which is the United States has been lawless for, well, I would say since The CIA was formed in 1947, which initiated the spate of dozens and dozens of illegal wars, coups, assassinations, and regime change operations that have continued until today. And it shouldn't have taken the threat against Denmark to bring that out to the Europeans. But maybe they will also come to reflect on that fact as well. Professor Sachs, you're so intellectually honest. I can't thank you enough for the background there, pointing out the hypocrisy of what the British, at least this one fellow who presumably speaks for the majority party in the House of Commons,

was talking about. Does the Kremlin care about Greenland, or is the Kremlin just delighting in seeing the American orchestrated destabilization of NATO? Look, I truly believe no one is delighting at an unhinged American president. That may sound naive. I don't think it is. I think the behavior of the United States right now is extremely dangerous. The U.S. has bombed Venezuela, has threatened countless other countries, may well bomb Iran when a carrier task force gets into range. The president dropped Iran from his rhetoric in the

past week, but we also know that a carrier task force is heading towards the Persian Gulf. So I wouldn't be surprised if that returned to the radar screen soon. We're in an extremely dangerous world environment, I don't think anybody truly is gloating about it. It's not a board game. It's not a video game. It's not a game where, you know, in the next hour, someone's declared a winner or loser. It's the real world. It's the only world we have. And we have a president who has declared himself above every law. international law above the UN or disdaining the UN or inventing a new UN, he thinks with himself as chairman of the board, nobody can be gloating about this, honestly. Will the Russians do anything about it if Trump uses force? I don't think any amount of money is going to dislodge Greenland from debt. And I can't imagine the Congress authorizing the hundreds of billions or trillions.

Well, that's not going to happen either. That's not going to happen either. So, no, no one is going to step in if the U.S. seizes this by force. If it does, it won't stand. You know, things can happen in a day or a week or a month, but it doesn't make them real. It makes them part of the imagination and the fantasy world of Donald Trump's mind or of his gangster cronies, because I think what the British MP said is right. This is gangsterism. But none of this is going to hold. The United States does not own Venezuela. It's not going to run Venezuela.

It's not going to own the oil. It apparently isn't even going to get a quite rapacious. ExxonMobil to go in because they don't think that it's economical to do so or prudent to do so. So lots of things can happen in the short term that don't, that are a lot of noise, very worrying, but aren't going to stand. Because for things to stand, there actually has to be some basis for that. And if Trump one day, and it could be any day, says, well, Greenland is just ours. No one's going to fight over that. On the other hand, it doesn't make Greenland, quote, ours or his. It will just be a declaration. And when he stops being president, which will happen, then something will

revert. This is not something that he can make as a true change of history by this kind of wild, rant or declaration. Here's an interesting comment on this from Foreign Minister Lavrov, whom you and I both know, you know him far better than I do, but it's very interesting the comparison that he made. This is just about two or three days ago. Chris? In Greenland, there was no coup, but as President Trump said,

this territory is simply important for the security of the U.S. Crimea is equally important. for the security of Russia. Greenland important for the security of the U.S. as Crimea is important for the security of Russia. Well, all right. Greenland is not under any threat whatsoever by Russia or China or anybody else. This is completely confabulated.

Donald Trump is jealous. that Russia has a long Arctic coastline and the United States does not. Donald Trump is jealous that Russia is 17 million square kilometers of land area and the United States a mere 9 million square kilometers. Russia is a bigger country. Donald Trump is like a four-year-old or a three-year-old. He's jealous. More toys on the other side.

He wants that Arctic coastline. This is absurd, all of this. And it has nothing to do with U.S. security. It has nothing to do with anybody's security. It has nothing to do with Russia and China, because Russia and China are not opening military bases on Greenland or seizing Greenland. The whole thing is a complete confabulation. And this is, you know, you got to give the man credit. He gets us wasting our time on this nonsense.

He turns the whole world upside down on his delusional ranting. Whether there's another game in this, hard to say. I don't think so. I think it's a psychological issue at this point. Does European leadership understand what you just said, or are they genuinely terrified over the talk about Greenland? Oh, no. Let me be clear.

He may try to take Greenland, but the threat to Greenland is not Russia or China. That's my point. You know, when everyone says, oh, we have to have it, then the Russians or the Chinese, this is like a comic book. You know, you're supposed to say Russia or China and everyone in the United States is supposed to go, oh, I'm so scared. Listen to the president. We need to do something. That's absurdity.

And that's what is happening right now. You can't just say Russia and China and we all stand on our heads and break out and sweat and think that this is some urgent crisis. It's an absurdity, but he wants to grab this place and thinks that he can do it. I don't think he's going to do it. I think the stock market, probably not Greenland or UK or anyone else, is actually his obstacle. The stock market told him, no, that's a no-no. we're going down, the biggest drop in recent months. You continue this, it's going down further.

Then he got afraid. That, I think, is probably what happened in the last 24 hours. Here's an interesting clip from a person we don't usually cite on foreign affairs because he's an American governor, but he's the governor of California. It has known that he wants to try and succeed Trump some very interesting words from him on this. Do you have a message for Europeans who are concerned about the messages from the White House around Greenland this week? Yeah, it's time to buck up. It's time to get serious and stop being complicit.

It's time to stand tall and firm, have a backbone. I've seen this in the United States. The supine Congress, playing both sides, you know, say one thing on a text or a tweet, another publicly. It's time to have principles. It's time to stand tall, bald, strong. Does that mean responding your talents? You make that determination. I don't make that determination.

But when you say standing, what do you mean? Just I can't take this complicity. People rolling over, I should have brought a bunch of knee pads for all the world leaders. I mean, handing out crowns and handing, I mean, this is pathetic. Nobel prizes they are being given away. I mean, it's just pathetic. And I hope people understand how pathetic they look. on the world stage. I mean, at least from an American perspective, it's embarrassing.

So what should you be doing? They should decide the Europeans should decide for themselves what to do. But one thing they can't do is what they've been doing and they've been played. Pretty good comments, Jeff. Oh my God. I went back to a speech. I gave a year ago in February in the European Parliament to recall what I had said. And I, I told them last February, you need a foreign policy because you're going to face the threat of an invasion from the United States. And I think they must have thought I was a little off my rocker. And I said, no, no, no, Donald Trump is, he's going to threaten to invade Greenland. And he's not joking.

And you better get serious about this. And of course, I don't think they did get serious about this. until the last few days. But this was already, at least to me, and I think if people were, had been watching it closely, this was clear. This was 11 months ago in February 2025.

So yes, the Europeans have made a huge, huge, huge mistake, which is to go along with the United States on everything, thinking somehow that this is their security. And as I said, they have gone along with every illegal action of the United States, as long as it didn't apply directly to them. And I and others have recalled the words of President John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address in January 20, 1961, when he said that those who would ride on the back of the tiger often find themselves inside afterwards.

In other words, if you think you can ride on the back of this kind of viciousness, you can be the next meal. And the Europeans have thought all along, we won't say anything about the bombing in Iran. We won't say anything about the Gaza genocide. We can forget the U.S. engagement in the coup in Ukraine in 2014. We can forget the U.S. promise not to expand NATO. We can forget the U.S. CIA plot to overthrow the Syrian government.

And on and on and on. That was all fine. But Denmark, now we're afraid. So this is basically, yes, Europe needs a foreign policy, but it doesn't need a hypocritical foreign policy. It needs a real foreign policy that honestly, understands the U.S. is a threat. It also has to understand that Europe should be having diplomacy with Russia. It was led into this conflict by the United States to take Ukraine for the U.S.

Now the U.S. has abandoned that cause and left Europe with the war that they truly don't understand. So all of this is to say Europe is really profoundly confused. Gavin Newsom is right in what he said. And so far we don't have European leaders that are saying almost anything clearly. By the way, one thing to add, kudos to Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada, who did something extremely important. Actually, two things important in the last week. One is he went to China and had true diplomacy with the Chinese government, not fear-mongering, not stupid claims against China, but actually grown-up discussions and arrived at serious, mutually beneficial arrangements with China.

Big kudos for Mark Carney for doing that because the United States can't figure out how to do that. Europe can't figure out how to do that. Then he went to Davos and gave a very fine speech yesterday saying, indeed, we are in a lawless environment. He did not name the United States, but it was absolutely clear what he was talking about. And he said, we have to get serious so that this. does not get out of hand. So we have at least one statesman on the world scene right now, the prime minister of Canada. And we need as many as we can get. One last clip to make you smile. And then we'll call it quits, former member of parliament, George Galloway.

It is unable to join the more gung-ho members of NATO. That's relevant. That's relevant. of course. The French sent 15 soldiers. The Germans sent 15 soldiers and then quickly withdrew them. The British have sent one soldier. That's right, one soldier. They can't join the more gung-ho Europeans because Britain is an American occupied country and we're occupied by American military bases. They're called Royal Air Force bases, but you won't find the king saluted in them. All of my lifetime, we've been told the Russians were coming. The Russians were about to invade Europe, and we had to spend, like Billio, on military hardware. We had to possess nuclear weapons because the Russians were coming. And as it turns out, it's the Americans that are

coming. And the Russians have no interest in the matter whatsoever. It's enough to make a horse laugh. It suddenly got me laughing. Only George can put it that way. There you go. He said it well. Yes. Thank you, Professor Sachs. Thanks so much for your deep, granular analogy of all this.

Much appreciated. Safe travels, and I look forward to seeing you next week. See you next week. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Coming up later today at 11 this morning, Aaron Matee, at 1 this afternoon, Professor Glenn Deeson. if internet problems can be resolved at three this afternoon.

Phil Giraldi, Judge Lepaultean for judging freedom.