Could Greenland, a Danish colony in our hemisphere, actually become America s 51st state? Joining me to talk about that is one of my favorite public intellectuals, Rod Martin, founder and CEO of Martin Capital, who helms the Rod Martin Report.
00:02:07.260We live in an age in which either through global warming, which I think many of us are properly skeptical of,
00:02:15.300or through the advent of growing nuclear power capabilities resulting in the likely prospect of a lot of nuclear icebreakers on the part of China and the United States and Russia,
00:02:29.720you actually have sea lanes in the North that are of increasing vitality.
00:02:36.980And Greenland commands those sea lanes very much as it did during the Cold War and World War II between itself and Iceland and the UK.
00:02:48.880Hey, these are absolutely vital to American security.
00:03:11.820They are all far beyond the technical and financial resources of Denmark to exploit.
00:03:18.520So what we have is a situation where the 57,000 Greenlanders are stuck in needless poverty under colonial domination by a European power, if you can call it that.
00:03:29.940And they really have no hope of any of this ever happening for them, apart from a major power coming in and developing it.
00:04:16.680And we can form a compact of free association with them as we have with the Mariana Islands and with the Marshalls and with Palau.
00:04:27.660They get all the benefits of independence with none of the costs and everybody's happy.
00:04:33.440As you know, President Donald Trump has identified the Greenland question is a question of national security.
00:04:40.080While Denmark's leaders have downplayed the threat to Greenland posed by the Russians or the Chinese amidst President Trump's outspoken desire to acquire this frozen island,
00:04:50.900Denmark's own intelligence agency recently released an assessment bluntly warning of Russian and Chinese military ambitions and expansion towards Greenland and the entire Arctic.
00:05:02.360You've also written very compellingly about the importance of the development of nuclear power in the Arctic in this new frontier.
00:05:10.480So for those who try to say, well, Trump's bellicose language, his desires to obtain Greenland are similar to the war in Iraq, let's say, under the neocons.
00:05:27.280I believe that this is, in fact, a national security question confronting our country.
00:05:31.780It absolutely is, and there's nothing neoconservative about it.
00:05:37.760This is the same kind of moral realism we saw under Ronald Reagan, where you use short, sharp uses of American power, such as we just did in Caracas, to achieve a multiplicity of ends.
00:05:51.840Well, there's no need for a short, sharp use of power here, but there is a need for a very Trumpian, maximalist position going into a negotiation that compels the people on the other side of the table to get creative about actually solving the problem.
00:06:09.920And the end result of that is always a good deal for everyone.
00:06:13.900Anybody who wants to play ball with Donald Trump is going to win in the process as he wins in the process.
00:06:22.740It's the people like the Ayatollah and Putin and Xi Jinping who are going to lose, because if you don't want to play ball with Donald Trump, he's going to whack you.
00:06:34.860Yeah, and it's going to really actually be incredibly entertaining for many of us, and it's going to be a very effective course of action for the United States.
00:06:44.080So that's just not going to be in the cards here, but it is going to get these guys to sit down and talk, and we saw the beginning of that today with the foreign ministers from Greenland and Denmark coming to meet with Marco Rubio.
00:06:56.640So that's a good development, and they can say whatever bellicose things they want, but at the end of the day, they came to Washington, and they're talking about the problem, and we're going to get to a good solution.
00:07:51.120I strongly recommend you subscribe, either at Substack or at Rod's own website.
00:07:56.940Always incisive analysis of the political developments and economic developments around the globe.
00:08:03.820You know, Rod, I'm a political animal, and therefore, I don't see what the harm would be to putting this question up before the people of Greenland in a referendum.
00:08:13.240I mean, why are the globalists so doggedly opposed to democracy and letting the people of Greenland speak about their future?
00:08:24.040Because polling has long shown that the Greenlanders want to be independent of Denmark.
00:08:31.380Denmark has not been a good colonial master.
00:08:35.100And there is, of course, this inherent bellicosity in the president's approach.
00:08:41.800So, of course, that makes people nervous.
00:08:44.560But the truth of the matter is, they would be independent if they could.
00:08:49.120And they've been very clear about that.
00:08:51.260And the unhappiness with Denmark is widespread and longstanding.
00:08:55.240So, if they could be independent without the costs of independence, that would solve the problem for everybody.
00:09:05.100Again, a compact of free association, such as we've already entered into with three separate independent countries in the Pacific, all island countries, I might add, is perfect for them.
00:09:52.180And, yes, once the Greenlanders fully understand that that's an option on the table, I think you get to a referendum.
00:10:00.340And I think this is exactly what they're going to vote for.
00:10:02.820Yeah, the EU and NATO talk tough, but I don't think they have much to back it up.
00:10:09.600And I think the president is going to call their bluff here.
00:10:13.320Rob, while I've got you, I've got to ask you your take on the developments swiftly happening there in Iran, where the regime, which is extraordinarily brutal,
00:10:24.240people need to understand that mass public executions are part of their bag of tricks.
00:10:29.940This is one of the most brutal governments in the world.
00:10:35.300I think former President Richard Nixon, when he was at the Shah's funeral, correctly appointed this as a mob, which is what it really is.0.86
00:11:01.840And this is exactly why we have a Second Amendment in this country, because the truth is, if only the state has guns, then everyone is at the mercy of the state.
00:11:13.420And that's exactly what's happened in Iran.
00:11:15.720So the president came out very strongly, I thought, you know, said very clearly, keep protesting.
00:11:23.800Well, we don't know exactly what that means.
00:11:26.380It certainly includes the 25 percent tariff he just slapped on any country that continues to do business with Iran.
00:11:32.700But there are a range of military operations that are available that he is strongly implying we're going to employ.
00:11:40.880And the only question is, what is the mix and what is the date?
00:11:44.580And when he says help's on the way and then it doesn't happen within 24 hours, we shouldn't be unnerved by that.
00:11:51.620The truth of the matter is, Iran's halfway around the world.0.97
00:11:54.460And it's not as easy to do this as it would be in Caracas.
00:11:59.280But what is certain is this military under this president and Pete Hegseth and the team that Trump has assembled is absolutely going to be successful in what they do.
00:12:12.560And I think we could be on the brink of this regime toppling.
00:12:19.960I'm not sure Americans fully appreciate the courage of the Iranian people.
00:12:25.200This is an incredibly brutal regime with a vicious secret police.
00:12:30.180Now there's huge disinformation that those protesters who are being killed are being killed by Israeli agents who are doing it as a provocation.
00:12:44.140This is a manifestation of the fact that conditions in Iran have really eroded to the fact that people's quality of life has been badly disturbed.
00:12:52.740There's there is there's a lack of food.
00:13:24.920Obviously, I would like to see that I have to see the nation have free, fair, open elections and a democratic process to select a way forward.
00:13:34.980I'm not sure that that is immediately realistic.
00:13:38.920What do you see coming up in Iran post regime?
00:13:42.780Well, you and I have friends on both sides of the question of is Reza Pahlavi the right guy to lead a transition?
00:13:51.960And, you know, some of our friends are concerned that he may be in league with the Revolutionary Guard and other of our friends poohoo that.
00:14:01.760And the truth of the matter is, we can't know until something happens, but Reza Pahlavi has consistently called for a transitional government that becomes a secular democracy.
00:14:16.700And he seems to be patterning what he has in mind on Juan Carlos in Spain.
00:14:22.780After Franco died, he had decided to bring back the monarchy and Juan Carlos was the next one in line.
00:14:30.240And so he sets up Juan Carlos, who immediately calls elections and creates a constitutional monarchy not that different from the one in Great Britain.
00:14:42.140So if Reza Pahlavi were able to bring that to pass, it would be just unbelievable for the region.
00:14:51.900First of all, the main threat to every Gulf state and to Israel would just be gone.0.97
00:14:59.960Iran would become not just a free country, but an ally of the United States and of Israel as it was before the Islamic Revolution in 79.
00:15:10.120But we're also seeing some interesting developments on the religious side.
00:15:15.340People have clearly rejected the Islamic theocracy.0.92
00:15:22.040And in the process, a great many of them seem to be rejecting Islam itself.0.91
00:15:28.100So we're seeing a rise of Zoroastrianism, which is the historic religion of Persia.
00:15:33.440We're also seeing a rise of Christianity in a lot of places.
00:15:36.700So this could really be a staggering development for the Middle East.
00:15:41.520And we could see the resumption of the westernization of one of the most important countries in the region.
00:15:49.300Folks, if you're just tuning in, we're talking to Rod Martin of the Rod Martin Report.