Jon B. Wolfsthal
Role at the time: Fellow for U.S. Nuclear Policy at PAX sapiens and former National Security Council senior director for arms control and nonproliferation, posting on his own Bluesky account
Statement summary
Jon Wolfsthal, a nuclear policy fellow and former National Security Council official, quoted a New York Times breaking-news post reporting that President Trump said the U.S. had reached a security deal with Greenland, and added: "He could have just asked and gotten this result with less alliance damage." The Times post also said Denmark had said an agreement would be signed soon.
“He could have just asked and gotten this result with less alliance damage.”
Why we used this label
Wolfsthal's own words say Trump "could have just asked" to get "this result", which treats the announced outcome as easily obtained and so downplays its significance, and add that the approach cost the alliance more than necessary; he does not say what the agreement contains or dispute Trump's description of it. The closest competing label is condemns, because "alliance damage" is critical. That loses because the criticism is aimed at the route Trump took to the result, not at the agreement or at Trump's description of it.