Trump wants our attention. Let’s stop falling for his geopolitical clickbait | Catherine De Vries

<p>Whether he’s targeting Greenland, tariffs or Iran, Trump’s agenda is to distract – because a Europe that is always reacting is never planning</p><p>When Donald Trump reassured the world that he <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/23/europe-trump-climbdown-genuflecting-tacos-greenland">would not, after all, use force</a> to acquire Greenland – after days of threatening as much – he was doing what he does best: turning geopolitics into a spectacle. Whether Trump ever truly believed the US should acquire a vast Arctic territory belonging to a Nato ally is secondary to the fact that, once again, he ensured that Europe and the rest of the world were focused on his agenda.</p><p>Trump is not a politician who responds to events – he seeks to make them. Not because he is deeply invested in policy detail, but because he understands a defining feature of contemporary politics: attention is power. In an era of information overload, there is no scarcity of data or analysis; what is lacking is attention. And whoever controls that controls the debate.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/28/donald-trump-attention-europe-greenland-venezuela-iran">Continue reading...</a>