From 'Red Dawn' to 'Orange Dawn': Trump’s Dangerous Cold War Reboot 

Kidnapping the president of a sovereign nation, bombing said sovereign nation and killing civilians in the process. High seas piracy, bombing Iran, and now recreating a movie that scared and thrilled a 12-year-old me back in 1986. If 1984’s ‘Red Dawn’ was very much an anti-war effort, this 2026 reboot is the polar opposite, especially as the North Pole is now in focus. And the Danes are to blame.

Greenland, part of the kingdom of Denmark, is the latest obsession for the famously short-term thinking US president. The North Atlantic island’s and Denmark’s foreign ministers were ‘summoned’ to the White House on Wednesday, as European nations were in full panic mode. Last week, the UK and France spoke loudly of placing thousands of troops in western Ukraine, yet will send around a dozen ‘fighters’ between them to protect Greenland. Denmark has reportedly sent up a dozen extra troops to protect against Russian and Chinese invaders. I am not joking. Almost, there will be less Danish and Euro troops there right now than there are currently US military stationed on Greenland. But why the panic?

A 2025 report by Denmark’s military, aimed at gaslighting citizens into splurging more on ‘defence’, explicitly said that Greenland was in danger of ‘invasion’ by Russia and/or China. Even though only 1 Chinese ship has been sighted off Greenland in the last decade, according to those dubious Danes, it gave Copenhagen reason to splash out on weapons, and Trump the excuse to take control of the world’s largest island.

The leader of the free world loudly proclaimed that the US needs the territory to stave off the dastardly duo from making moves closer to Washington. At a press conference he stated that he didn’t want to have Russia or China as a neighbour – oddly, not a single journalist was brave (or smart) enough to raise a hand and say, “Mister President, Russia’s next door to Alaska, where you met Vladimir Putin last Summer.” Then again, Americans are not known for their grasp of geography, if countless TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram videos have taught us anything.

How weird will it be for a NATO member to attack a fellow NATO member, and have an Article 5 declared against them? Will the US be forced to give troops and support to the brave Danish dogsled patrols and handful of hotpotch Euro scrappers to fend off an invasion by…the US? In this current climate, anything is possible.

While ‘Orange Dawn’ might well flop at the box office, it is looking likely to stir up a lot of animosity against the US and her assorted cheerleaders. ‘Imminent’ strikes on Iran, reportedly at Israel’s request, are not going to help stability in a nation currently struggling financially and socially, Iran that is, though it could be the US. Increasing tariff wars with India and China are, likewise, not going to improve confidence in the US as a trustworthy business partner. Increasingly, enamoured US-aligned politicians in Europe are having doubts.

I spoke with an Irish member of parliament (Dail) who openly fears that the latest adventures by the United States could herald in a very unsettling epoch.

“Greenland, Iceland, Ireland. Look at the former, there are more Yank troops there than Danish. Iceland is the only NATO [member] with no standing army and about a thousand security including their cops. And I don’t need to explain Ireland, America uses Shannon [Airport] as a base and can bomb us to oblivion.”

She was very blunt with her assessment of the current mood in the Irish government, of which her party is in power, saying that “more than one [colleague] has voiced their concern about America’s intentions.”

After our call I got to thinking that maybe Mister Trump had gone more literary than movie theatre and had reverse engineered a Tom Clancy novel to ‘Orange Storm Rising.’ The original ‘Red Storm Rising’, which I devoured on a road trip with my then soccer team in Canada in Summer 1996, actually made me believe that World War 3 had begun. It envisaged the Soviet Union invading Europe, landing troops in Iceland and basically coming within a US hero or two of controlling the ‘Eastern Hemisphere.’ Donald is talking about ruling the ‘Western Hemisphere’ so there could be something in that.

Will the US take Atlantic Europe under her protective eagle wing? Should Ireland, so beholden to US ‘investment’ and pliant to allowing one of our major airports, and air space, be used to channel weapons, warriors and warplanes to the latest target of Washington’s ire, be worried? The US has bases across the European continent with enough man- and firepower to smash any uppity Euro opposition. Is this the beginning of the end for European ascendancy, or the end of the new beginning for American global hegemony? Or just a bad remake/rewrite? In any case, ‘Orange Dawn’ is coming soon, to all of us. Whether we want it to, or not.