He warned the world on the first day.
"Nothing will stand in our way," President Donald Trump announced, to thunderous applause, at the end of his inaugural address during a cold Washington winter last year, at the very beginning of his second term.
Did the world not take him seriously enough?
Tucked into his speech was a reference to the 19th-century doctrine of "manifest destiny" - the idea that the US had a God-given license to expand territory on the continent, spreading American ideals.
At that moment, he set his sights on the Panama Canal.
"We're going to bring it back," Trump announced.
Now that statement, expressed with absolute determination, is aimed at Greenland.
"We have to have it," is his new mantra.
It's a rude awakening at a moment fraught with real danger.
American history is replete with significant and controversial American invasions, occupations, and covert operations to overthrow rulers and regimes.
But in the past century, no American president has threatened to seize the territory of a longtime ally and made that decision against the will of the people.
No American leader has so brutally violated political norms and threatened the long-standing alliances that have formed the basis of the world order since the end of World War II.
There is no doubt that the old rules are being violated with complete impunity.
Trump is now being described as arguably the most “transformative” American president – accompanied by cheers from supporters at home and abroad, concern in capitals around the world, and a thoughtful silence in Moscow and Beijing.
"It is a shift towards a world without rules, where international law is trampled upon and where the only law that seems to matter is the law of the strongest, with the resurgence of imperial ambitions," was the harsh warning. French President Emmanuel Macron on stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, without directly mentioning Trump by name.
There are growing concerns about a potentially painful trade war, even worries in some quarters that the 76-year-old NATO military alliance could now be at risk if, in a worst-case scenario, the US commander-in-chief tries to take Greenland by force.
Trump's defenders are increasing support for his "America First" agenda, and against the post-war multilateral order.
Asked by the BBC whether taking over Greenland would violate the United Nations charter, Republican Congressman Randy Fine said: "I think the United Nations has completely failed as an entity that supports world peace and, frankly, whatever they think, it's probably right to do the exact opposite."
Fine introduced a bill called the "Greenland Annexation and Statehood Act" in Congress last week.
How do nervous American allies react to this, when it seems like nothing will stand in Trump's way?
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Many phrases have accompanied the past year of diplomatic wrangling over how best to deal with an unpredictable American president and commander-in-chief.
"We need to take it seriously, but not literally," came from those who insist that all of this can be resolved through dialogue.
It worked, but only to a point, in attempts to forge a unified response with Europe to Russia's fierce war in Ukraine.
Trump often changes his mind, from one week to the next, from expressing pro-Russian views, then leaning towards Ukraine, only to return to the Russian orbit.
“The mogul is real estate,” say those who see Trump’s maximalist views as his deal-making tactics from his days in the New York real estate market.
An echo of this can be found in his repeated threats of military action against Iran – although it is clear that military options are still on his now-crowded desk.
"He doesn't speak like a traditional politician," explains his chief diplomat, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, when pressed about Trump's tactics.
"He says, and he does," is the greatest eulogy for his presidency, and against what is mocked as the dismal performance of his predecessors.
Rubio has been one of the main voices trying to soften Trump's threats about Greenland, emphasizing that he wants to buy this huge strategic ice sheet, not invade it.
He pointed out that Trump has been considering options to buy the world's largest island, to counter threats from China and Russia, since his first term.
But there is no denying Trump's bully tactics, his disdain for collective action, his belief that might is always right.
"He is a man of transaction and brute force, mafia force," says Zeni Minton Bedous, editor-in-chief of the magazine. Economist.
"He doesn't see the benefit in alliances, he doesn't see the idea of America as an idea, as a set of values; he doesn't care about it in the slightest."
And he doesn't even hide it.
"Russia and China are not afraid of NATO at all. Not in the least," Trump told the New York Times in a wide-ranging interview earlier this month.
"That's why they're terribly afraid of us."
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If security were really a problem there, the US already has forces on the ground in Greenland anyway and, under a 1951 agreement, can send more troops and open more bases.
“I have to own it,” Trump says bluntly.
And he often likes to make it known: "I like to win."
There is more and more evidence that suggests that this is all there is to it.
The twists and turns in his policy over the past year have been puzzling.
In the Saudi capital Riyadh in May, we watched as his landmark speech during his first overseas visit of his second term was met with rapturous reception.
Trump lashed out at American "interventionists" whom he harshly criticized for "destroying far more nations than they built... in complex societies that they didn't even understand themselves."
In June, when Israel attacked Iran, Trump reportedly warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to jeopardize his diplomacy with military threats against Iran.
By the end of that week, when he saw Israel's success in assassinating top nuclear scientists and security chiefs, Trump declared, "I think it was great."
"Smart-washing" was a term coined several months ago by Edward Luce of Financial Times to describe Trump's polite presentation to the world, the ranks of leaders knocking on his door with glittering gifts and sweet-talking eulogies to try to win him over to their side.
“Trump apologists – a larger group than true believers – are working from dawn to dusk to rationally wash his policies into something coherent,” Luce wrote in his latest column.
This phenomenon was evident last October when leaders from around the world were invited to join him in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh to celebrate his resounding announcement that "We finally have peace in the Middle East", for the first time in "3.000 years".
The first significant phase his peace plan brought about a much-needed ceasefire in Gaza and the immediate release of Israeli hostages.
Trump's muscular diplomacy forced Netanyahu, just like Hamas, to agree to it.
It was a major breakthrough that only Trump could have achieved.
But it was not – unfortunately – the dawn of peace.
No one present said that silent part out loud.
Last year, Trump's approach was presented as manifest destiny.
This year it was the Monroe Doctrine from the early 19th century, now updated, after invasion of Venezuela, in the "Donro Doctrine".
President Trump now boasts of it, emboldened by the most ardent supporters within his own ranks, convinced that America can do whatever it wants in its own backyard, and beyond, to protect American interests.
Sometimes he is called an isolationist, sometimes an interventionist.
But he is always accompanied by the slogan that brought him back to power - Make America Great Again.
And his letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Storr highlighted an obsessive resentment at not being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025.
Tramp is informed Stora: "I no longer feel obligated to think exclusively about peace, although that will always be predominant, but I can now also think about what is good and right for the United States of America."
“This is a good day to have a Nordic temperament,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Bart Eide diplomatically commented to me when I asked him about that moment.
Norway was calm, with ice-cold determination, in defense of Greenland and Denmark, and collective security in the Arctic.
European responses continue to drag on that slippery political ice.
Macron has vowed to launch the European Union's "trade bazooka" in the form of counter-tariffs and restricting access to the lucrative EU market.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of the US president's closest European allies, spoke vaguely about "a problem of understanding and misunderstanding."
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vigorously and publicly defended Greenland's territorial integrity, but he wants to protect the strong personal bond he has built over the past year by avoiding punitive tariffs.
Trump has taken off his gloves and released private messages he receives from leaders, using the old tools of statecraft to try to win their support.
"Let's have dinner in Paris together on Thursday, before you return to the United States," suggested the French president, who also wondered, amid praise for other foreign policy successes, "I don't understand what you're doing with Greenland."
"I can't wait to see you," wrote NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who once called Trump "daddy" in reference to his forceful handling of the 12-day war between Iran and Israel last year.
Rutte, and others, credit Trump's open threats with forcing NATO members to significantly increase defense spending in recent years.
Trump's warnings, which date back to his first term, have accelerated a trend that previous American presidents had called for, and that NATO members themselves had begun in the shadow of Russian threats.
On the other side of the Atlantic, a country that has long lived in America's shadow is trying to forge a different path forward, one that, admittedly, brings with it its own challenges.
“We need to accept the world as it is, not as we want it to be,” was the candid reflection of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney during his visit to China last week.
It was the first visit by a Canadian leader to Beijing since 2017, after many years of sharp tension, and sends a clear signal in this world of accelerating change.
Trump's stunning threat to annex his northern neighbor has resurfaced in a social media post showing the Western Hemisphere, including Canada and Greenland, covered in the American flag.
Canadians are aware that there is still a risk that they are next.
Carney, a former central banker, rose to Canada's top job last year, buoyed by Canadians' belief that he was best equipped to stand up to Trump.
He responded dollar for dollar from the start, imposing punitive tariffs – until it became too painful for the much smaller Canadian economy, which sends more than 70 percent of its goods south of the border.
When Carney took the stage in Davos on Tuesday, he too reflected on this uncomfortable critical moment.
“American hegemony, in particular, has helped to provide public goods, open waterways, a stable financial system, collective security, and support for frameworks for conflict resolution,” he said, adding bluntly: “We are in the midst of a rift, not a transition.”
On Wednesday, Trump will speak from that same podium, with the world watching intently.
Asked by The New York Times this month what could stop him, Trump replied: "My own morality. My own mind. That's the only thing that can stop me."
That is what lies behind the armada of allies who now want to convince him, to flatter him, to coerce him – to change his mind.
This time it is not certain that they will succeed.
Watch the video on why Trump wants Greenland
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