David Karol
Role at the time: Associate professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland, posting on his own Bluesky account
Statement summary
In a Bluesky post quoting a journalist's post that reproduced President Trump's Truth Social announcement of an agreement with Denmark and Greenland, University of Maryland political scientist David Karol wrote that the agreement "seems to be largely a rebranding of the status quo to claim a win," likening it to Trump's first-term replacement of NAFTA with the USMCA. He added that Denmark "always said the US could increase the military presence."
“This seems to be largely a rebranding of the status quo to claim a win, much like Trump's first term USMCA replacing "Worst Trade Deal Ever" NAFTA he threatened to withdraw from with an only slightly updated agreement. Denmark always said the US could increase the military presence.”
Why we used this label
Karol says the agreement "seems to be largely a rebranding of the status quo to claim a win" and that Denmark "always said the US could increase the military presence," disputing that the deal is the new arrangement Trump describes without saying whether the agreement itself is good or bad. The closest competing label is condemns, because "to claim a win" attributes a motive to Trump's presentation. That loses because the criticism is confined to how the deal is labeled and presented; the post does not criticize the agreement's terms, and its main move is to dispute what the deal is.