Forced adoption is never a good thing.

When Donald Trump talks about annexing Greenland, Canada or the Panama Canal, he isn’t being serious. He is simply drawing on the tiresome but effective playbook in which making outrageous statements distracts political or business opponents from being able to concentrate on the real issue at hand. Yes, it’s understandable the US wants more control of resources such as Greenland’s minerals or global shipping lanes, but where diplomatic tradition suggests sticking to the point in negotiations, Trumpism is – at heart – just a predictable repetition of “dead cat strategy”.

For those who don’t know, dead catting was brought to the fore by Australian political strategist Lynton Crosby, who is largely associated with right-wing populists. Throw a dead cat on the table at a dinner party, he observed, and everyone will have to comment on it, no matter what conversation they were hoping to have. It’s the same politics of chaos embraced by Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán and, back home, the likes of Jacob Zuma, et al.