Mostly Monday Reads: What would Martin Do?

“Wait until you see the Washington Monument makeover!” John Buss, @repeat1968

Good Day, Sky Dancers!

We’re a long way from the kinds of dreams we used to have as Americans. That seems particularly important as we celebrate the Birthday of civil rights hero Dr. Martin Luther King. I frequently wonder what he would be saying about the current DEI war led by one of the most racist presidents we’ve ever had. Here’s a quote from former President Obama about today’s holiday, posted on Instagram.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dedicated his life fighting for equity and justice. He taught us that even in the face of intimidation and discrimination, we must never stop working towards a better future – a lesson that feels especially relevant today.

Change has never been easy. It takes persistence and determination, and requires all of us to speak out and stand up for what we believe in. As we honor Dr. King today, let’s draw strength from his example, and do our part to build on his legacy.

Here are a few reads to think about today’s holiday. This one is from AXIOS. In Trump’s land of remaking that dream of the little Jim Crow over there on John’s Featured Cartoon today. “Trump’s DEI crackdown is changing MLK Day.” Jason Lalljee has this analysis.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day will look different in many parts of the country this year after a series of administration moves to limit observances — part of President Trump’s broader crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion.

• “Since the start of Trump’s second term, we have seen a coordinated effort to erase or rewrite parts of American history, especially Black history and the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement,” Martin Luther King III, son of the civil rights leader, told Axios.

Here’s what we know:
Across government Trump removed a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office last summer. It had been there since 2009.

Following Trump’s signing of a sweeping executive order overhauling federal DEI programs last January, the Defense Intelligence Agency ordered a pause of all activities and events related to MLK Day.

• The DIA also paused programming for Black History Month, Juneteenth, LGBTQ Pride Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day and other “special observances” to comply with Trump’s order, per NBC News.

The White House did not respond to request for comment.

National Parks

Free entry to national parks will now be granted on Trump’s birthday but no longer on MLK Day or Juneteenth, the White House announced last month.

Beyond its elimination of a “fee-free” MLK Day, the Trump administration is administering an extensive purge of exhibits across the nation’s parks that includes a substantial removal of materials related to MLK, said Kristen Brengel, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association.

• The Department of the Interior last May required every park to conduct a review of “public monuments, memorials, statues, or similar properties” complying with a Trump executive order targeting “race-centered ideology” and “narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”

• The DOI’s order said that it would flag items for removal that violated the executive order. The NPCA has a database of items flagged by the DOI based on reports from current National Parks Service employees, which Axios has viewed. Those items include exhibits, films, books, and youth-oriented materials such as junior ranger pamphlets.

The DOI identified “about 80” items for removal at the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, where King led a march in support of the Voting Rights Act, according to Brengel.

• • Brengel said that materials related to slavery, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow were also flagged, adding that they are featured at a diverse range of parks, including the National Mall, the Louis and Clark National Historic Trail, and Revolutionary War sites.
  • “When you look at the totality of everything identified throughout the parks system, African American history is being targeted more than anything,” she said.

There’s more at the link. This next piece is written by Jenna Prestininzi and published in the Detroit Free Press. “Did Trump get rid of MLK Jr Day? How the holiday is different in 2026.”

Monday, Jan. 19, is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, honoring the prominent civil rights leader, but, thanks to President Donald Trump’s administration, national park visitors won’t get a free visit to sites because of new federal guidelines.

Although the Trump administration can’t cancel or end the holiday, the administration changed the lineup for National Park Service free entry days and eliminated Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 19, from list. The federal holiday previously was among dates national parks and other sites offered a free visit, recognizing a key figure in African American history.

For 2026, eight free entry days — which are now limited to U.S. citizens and residents — will begin with Presidents Day, Feb. 16.

The worst news of the day comes from Trump’s obsession with Greenland and other countries with which he has a Monroe Doctrine complex. This is from the New York Times. “Trump Links His Push for Greenland to Not Winning Nobel Peace Prize. In a text, President Trump told Norway’s prime minister that he no longer felt obliged to “think purely of Peace” and that the U.S. needed the island for global security.” Trump’s mental, physical, and emotional illnesses are on full display. Jeffrey Gettleman and Henrik Pryser Libell share the lede.

President Trump is now claiming that one reason he is pushing to acquire Greenland is that he didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize, according to a text message he sent to Norway’s prime minister over the weekend.

Jonas Gahr Store, Norway’s leader, received the text message on Sunday, an official in the prime minister’s office said on Monday.

“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Mr. Trump wrote in the message, which was first published by PBS.

Mr. Trump also questioned Denmark’s claim to Greenland, saying, “There are no written documents,” and adding, “The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you!”

The tensions over Greenland have sharply escalated in the last week, and the message injected a new level of uncertainty into Mr. Trump’s thinking and his campaign to gain control of the island.

Greenland has been part of the Danish Kingdom for more than 300 years, and world leaders have condemned Mr. Trump’s insistence that the United States take over the territory, a giant icebound island in the Arctic region.

According to copies of the messages provided by the Norwegian prime minister’s office, Mr. Trump’s message was a response to one that Mr. Store sent Mr. Trump on Sunday. It was co-signed by the president of Finland, Alexander Stubb, a leader with whom Mr. Trump is close.

The European leaders asked to speak to Mr. Trump about Greenland and his threat of using tariffs to pressure Denmark into selling it, which Denmark has refused to do. They asked for a phone call and struck a collaborative tone, writing, “We believe we all should work to take this down and de-escalate — so much is happening around us where we need to stand together.”

After Mr. Trump’s response, Mr. Store said in a statement, “As regards the Nobel Peace Prize, I have on several occasions clearly explained to Trump what is well known, namely that it is an independent Nobel Committee, and not the Norwegian government, that awards the prize,” Mr. Store said.

Anne Applebaum, writing for The Atlantic, has this terse analysis. “Trump’s Letter to Norway Should Be the Last Straw. Will Republicans in Congress ever step in?”

Let me begin by quoting, in full, a letter that the president of the United States of America sent yesterday to the prime minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre. The text was forwarded by the White House National Security Council to ambassadors in Washington, and was clearly intended to be widely shared. Here it is:

Dear Jonas:

Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely 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 from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only a boat that landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT

One could observe many things about this document. One is the childish grammar, including the strange capitalizations (“Complete and Total Control”). Another is the loose grasp of history. Donald Trump did not end eight wars. Greenland has been Danish territory for centuries. Its residents are Danish citizens who vote in Danish elections. There are many “written documents” establishing Danish sovereignty in Greenland, including some signed by the United States. In his second term, Trump has done nothing for NATO—an organization that the U.S. created and theoretically leads, and that has only ever been used in defense of American interests. If the European members of NATO have begun spending more on their own defense (budgets to which the U.S. never contributed), that’s because of the threat they feel from Russia.

Yet what matters isn’t the specific phrases, but the overall message: Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction now affect him. Also, he really is maniacally, unhealthily obsessive about the Nobel Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, not the Norwegian government and certainly not the Danish government, determines the winner of that prize. Yet Trump now not only blames Norway for failing to give it to him, but is using it as a justification for an invasion of Greenland.

Think about where this is leading. One possibility, anticipated this morning by financial markets, is a damaging trade war. Another is an American military occupation of Greenland. Try to imagine it: The U.S. Marines arrive in Nuuk, the island’s capital. Perhaps they kill some Danes; perhaps some American soldiers die too. And then what? If the invaders were Russians, they would arrest all of the politicians, put gangsters in charge, shoot people on the street for speaking Danish, change school curricula, and carry out a fake referendum to rubber-stamp the conquest. Is that the American plan too? If not, then what is it? This would not be the occupation of Iraq, which was difficult enough. U.S. troops would need to force Greenlanders, citizens of a treaty ally, to become American against their will.

For the past year, American allies around the world have tried very hard to find a theory that explains Trump’s behavior. Isolationism, neo-imperialism, and patrimonialism are all words that have been thrown around. But in the end, the president himself defeats all attempts to describe a “Trump doctrine.” He is locked into a world of his own, determined to “win” every encounter, whether in an imaginary competition for the Nobel Peace Prize or a protest from the mother of small children objecting to his masked, armed paramilitary in Minneapolis. These contests matter more to him than any long-term strategy. And of course, the need to appear victorious matters much more than Americans’ prosperity and well-being.

These remarkable comments have rattled our European allies. John Irish and Nora Buli, writing for Reuters, have this headline today. “Trump links Greenland threat to Nobel Peace Prize snub, EU prepares to retaliate.”

U.S. President Donald Trump has linked his drive to take control of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize, saying he no longer thought “purely of Peace” as the row over the island threatened to reignite a trade war with Europe.

Asked by NBC News in a brief telephone interview on Monday if he would use force to seize Greenland, Trump said “No comment,” adding he would “100%” follow through on plans to hit European nations with tariffs without a Greenland deal.

Trump has intensified his push to wrest sovereignty over Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark, prompting the European Union to weigh hitting back with its own measures.

The dispute is threatening to upend the NATO alliance that has underpinned Western security for decades and which was already under strain over the war in Ukraine and Trump’s refusal to protect allies which do not spend enough on defence.

Trump’s threat has rattled European industry and sent shockwaves through financial markets amid fears of a return to the volatility of 2025’s trade war, which only eased when the sides reached tariff deals in the middle of the year.

In a text message on Sunday to Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, Trump said: “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”

Norway’s government released the messages on Monday under the country’s freedom of information act.

Stoere had sent an initial message on behalf of himself and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, calling for de-escalation of tensions and suggesting a call, eliciting a response from Trump less than half an hour later.

We’re all wondering exactly how Trump plans to do this, and whether it will involve force. So far, the biggest threats are tariffs, which, of course, hurt American consumers and businesses more than anyone else. This is from NBC News. “Trump won’t say whether he would use force to seize Greenland. The president was guarded in how far he’ll go to take control of the semi-autonomous Danish territory in an exclusive interview with NBC News.”  This lede is shared by Peter Nicholas and Alexander Smith.

As tensions escalate over President Donald Trump’s efforts to acquire Greenland, he was guarded Monday in how far he’ll go to take control of the semi-autonomous Danish territory.

Asked if he would use force to seize Greenland, the president said, “No comment,” in a brief telephone interview with NBC News.

Trump has stepped up his push to take possession of Greenland. He said Saturday he would impose 10% tariffs on Denmark and seven other European nations until a deal is struck for America’s acquisition of Greenland.

The president then introduced a new wrinkle to his standoff with longtime European allies, linking Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize last year in a text message Sunday to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. The Norwegian leader released his text message exchange with Trump under Norway’s public disclosure laws, his press office said.

“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Trump said in the message, which was first reported by PBS and confirmed as accurate in a statement by the Norwegian prime minister.

Norway was one of the countries hit with the new tariffs, which would kick in Feb. 1, according to a post Trump wrote on his social media platform.

In a statement Monday, Støre said, “Norway’s position on Greenland is clear. Greenland is a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Norway fully supports the Kingdom of Denmark on this matter.”

A five-member committee appointed by Norway’s parliament awards the Nobel Peace Prize each year. In 2025, the committee chose Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, for the honor. As a show of gratitude for his ouster of Venezuela’s repressive leader Nicolás Maduro in a military strike, Machado gave Trump her 18-karat gold medal in a visit to the White House last week.

Trump dismissed the idea that Norway has no sway over the Nobel Peace Prize competition and that the decision is entirely up to the committee.

“Norway totally controls it despite what they say,” he told NBC News.

Everything this rotter does these days is just amazingly wrong, stupid, and immoral. Again, his hallmark is cruelty. WTF is wrong with the Republican Party that they allow this to go on?

What’s on your Reading, Action, and Blogging list today?