Back in September of 2016, then U.S. presidential candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, told all Americans that those of us who supported Donald Trump were nothing but a "basket of deplorables" -- unacceptable humans --  who, if they got their way, would bring down all of the U.S.'s institutions, culture, Constitution, and be the start of a wholesale abandonment of American basic values. 

Donald Trump pushed back, but the damage was done.

The jury could not disregard the remark and the phrase became the appellation most often used by hardcore Democrats in private conversations and one that was repeatedly slammed by hardcore conservatives.

As is often the case, such remarks have a way of biting the hand that feeds them to the public.

The public I am speaking of here is not just Americans. The phrase has now worked its way across the Atlantic and extended its reach to the Europeans who now seem to agree with HRC that the Trump administration has tossed good manners and long-standing protocol over the side of the ship of state.

It was announced yesterday that Vice President Vance will now accompany his wife to the Danish protectorate of Greenland, but not to witness a dog-sled race. He will be meeting with officials at the Thule (now called Pituffik, pronounced Bee-doo-feek) Space Base which has around 150 American military personnel stationed there.

The nature of the visit changed because the Trump administration was getting a lot of bad press in Denmark and Greenland for showing up without an invitation even though it had every right to do so under the U.S./Danish visa waiver program which allows Americans and Danes to visit each other's countries without a visa. That goes for official Americans and civilians alike.

But having the right does not make it right, however, and the Danish and Greenlandic press were quick to point out that they saw the arrival of two Hercules air transport planes show up at their civilian airport a few days ago as a bridge too far.

To mix metaphors, America had crossed the Rubicon. The optics were, admittedly, bad for America. It looked like an invasion, albeit a benign one with armored vehicles and a few dozen security personnel. The Danes ended up sending a hundred or so Danish police from mainland Denmark seemingly as a countermeasure.

The Greenlanders' yearly dog-sled race had morphed from a proud Greenland cultural event to a political one where the guest of honor (the VP's wife) was not actually the official guest of honor and would be there without an invitation from the organizers.

Another problem was the fact that Greenland had just held an election ten days prior and had not yet formed a government, so no caretaker government official was interested in being branded an "America lover" by meeting with her before they handed over the reins of power to a governing coalition.

Mush on, or as it's said in Greenlandic, "aju-aju," to get their dogs to move forward over the snow, the locals put pressure on their media to carry the ice water of their discontent.

Journalists from Copenhagen and Nuuk glommed on to the story, calling it "intimidation" and a "breach of long-standing protocol," "a slap in the face to Denmark and Greenland" by a territory-hungry predator masquerading as a benevolent freedom-loving country.

Was America fulfilling Hillary's prophecy?

As of this writing, the visit is on with the vice president in the lead. The destination is fixed (Pituffik) and the timing is only a couple days away. Vance and wife are still not invited anywhere, and will probably bunk at the base and not travel to the site of the race, nor meet with any local Greenlanders.

Obviously, since this is the Trump administration, things could change with a moment's notice, but that's the state of play now.

The visit, as originally planned, was a tactical mistake, in my opinion. It should have never left the drawing board without at least a bi-lateral nod to the Danes and the Greenlanders. Instead, it is now clean-up on ice floe number three, and the fallout on this side of the Atlantic is more disgust with America and Americans.

Now we know what it's like to be disliked for not taking off our boots at the door to prevent leaving mud on our host's floor.

We are becoming the deplorables, at least in many Europeans' eyes, and it will take quite awhile to change their minds before they once more gladly buy our products, praise our culture or accept the differences in our leadership on the world stage to the extent they ever did.

Hillary may have been wrong about the true nature of Trump supporters, but she was right about the perception of Trump supporters, and as we Americans know, most of the time perception is reality to many people, and getting them to focus on the facts is a task so great that many of us conservatives have already given up pursuing it.

It is just them and us now with no in-between.

When Lincoln spoke about fooling people he was right. You cannot fool all of the people all of the time, but by being seen to be trying to fool them, you end up creating formidable opponents from all sorts of people.

The Europeans are among those people, especially the Danes who do not care how small their country is or the size of their trade with the United States. To them, might does not make right and they are willing to call out the emperor no matter where he sits or the size of his kingdom. It's just in their DNA as a former warrior nation. That's not deplorable. It's admirable, if not a little risky.

Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License
Stephen Helgesen is a retired career U.S. diplomat specializing in international trade who lived and worked in 30 countries for 25 years during the Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush Administrations. He is the author of fourteen books, seven on American politics, and has written over 1,500 articles on politics, economics and social trends. He now lives in Denmark and is a frequent political commentator on Danish media. He can be reached at: stephenhelgesen@gmail.com.