White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller told CNN’s Jake Tapper last night, Jan. 5, that the world is not run by laws but by brute force. When Tapper asked Miller about President Donald Trump’s statement that the U.S. is running Venezuela, Miller replied with the following: “Well, what the President said is true. The United States of America is running Venezuela. By definition, that’s true. Jake ... we live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.”
In response to a followup question, Miller added: “by definition, we are in charge because we have the United States military stationed outside the country. We set the terms and conditions. We have a complete embargo on all of their oil and their ability to do commerce. So for them to do commerce, they need our permission. For them to be able to run an economy, they need our permission. So the United States is in charge. The United States is running the country during this transition period.”
Miller applied that same Hobbesian logic to Greenland. Tapper noted that Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen had responded to a Twitter post by Miller’s wife earlier in the day, of a picture of Greenland with an American flag posted over it, by warning that a U.S. attack on a NATO ally would be the end of the Alliance. “It wouldn’t be military action against Greenland,” Miller said, deflecting Tapper’s question as to whether the administration has taken military force off the table. “The real question is, by what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? What is the basis of their territorial claim? What is their basis of having Greenland as a colony of Denmark? The United States is the power of NATO, for the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests. Obviously, Greenland should be part of the United States.”
Then he added that there’s no reason to even be discussing a military operation, because “Nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.” He said that, in a “world of superpowers,” the fact is, the United States “is the top superpower.”
