Trump rachets up tensions with Moscow as U.S. military seizes Russian tanker in international waters and talks more about taking Greenland by force

Russia responds with demands to safely return its citizens currently being detained by the U.S. military.

Another U.S.-Russia flashpoint has emerged, adding a layer of tension that brings the two superpowers to the brink of direct military confrontation perhaps sooner than any of us thought possible.

I had a timetable of 2027 for the breakout of full-blown World War III but is it possible it could come in 2026? Today’s events suggest it is.

The U.S., on orders of President Trump, seized a Russian-owned tanker in international waters Wednesday morning and boarded the ship. It was stopped in the north Atlantic between Iceland and the U.K.

Given that this vessel had defied the U.S. blockade of Venezuela a few weeks ago and fled, then received protection from Russian military assets, including a Russian submarine, the move by the U.S. to continue to pursue it with its own military assets and then take it over, is extraordinary.

The Russian foreign ministry issued a terse statement:

“The United States should not hinder the swift return of Russian citizens from the vessel ‘Marinera’ to their homeland. Russia demands that the United States ensure humane and dignified treatment of Russian citizens aboard the vessel ‘Marinera,’ and respect their rights and interests.”

Make no mistake, this marks a further deterioration of already dismal relations between the two nuclear-armed superpowers.

Further exacerbating the tensions is Trump’s continued lust for Greenland. He seems obsessed with it.

Trump stated again this week that the U.S. "needs" Greenland for its national security, citing its strategic location and mineral resources as crucial for Arctic defense. The White House has indicated that acquiring Greenland is a priority, and military options are being considered if Denmark doesn’t agree to hand it over as part of a fire sale.

Wrapped in the language of “national security,” this is a further provocation directed at Russia. Trump wants to seal off another chokepoint in what is increasingly looking like not just a blockade of Venezuela but an international blockade of Russian ships and Russian-based oil commerce. That is an act of war and will be interpreted as such by Moscow.

The direction this is heading should cause us all to have a serious contemplation of what comes next and whether we are ready for it.

If the U.S. were to get attacked by Russian and/or Chinese military assets, perhaps through a proxy like North Korea or Iran, that could potentially shut down large portions of our power grid for long periods of time, disrupting supply lines in the process. Would you have enough food and water to sustain your family for more than a week or two? If access to food and water became seriously pinched for a longer period, say months instead of weeks, now you’re talking about the complete breakdown of law and order and likely martial law. Hungry citizens would be grabbing what they can from others who may have more but no way to defend it. Now we’re looking at not just having enough food and water to survive, but also having the means to secure those necessities from roving gangs of armed hungry people.

In essence, America’s internal society would mirror what we see happening in the wider global community. The rule of law gives way to the law of the jungle, where the strongest ones take what they want over the barrel of a gun. Why? Because they can. Who is going to stop them?

This confrontation goes beyond Russia and the U.S. fighting over one tanker.

Venezuela, Taiwan, Gaza, Iran, and Greenland all play a role in the U.S. government’s decision to pull the trigger on a strategic plan aimed at reasserting U.S. global hegemony. Dozens of U.S. military aircraft have landed in Great Britain the past few days.

This push for Greenland has the backing of Trump’s billionaire supporter Peter Thiel, the co-founder of the militarized data-grabbing firm Palantir. Theil envisions turning Greenland into a massive “Freedom City,” which is Trump-speak for a 15-minute Smart City, or in this case, a militarized surveillance state and tech hub.

Greenland is not up for sale, says the government of Denmark, its rightful owner. So for Trump to basically hold a gun to the owner of the island’s head and say, “hand it over or I’ll take it by force,” is not only unethical and illegal, it’s ungodly and, I would submit, totally lawless.

The entire post-World War II security order appears to be collapsing. Is this just a ruse? Is Donald Trump really about to break it all up by seizing Greenland from an allied country and member of NATO? These are serious questions, the answers to which will apparently play out in 2026, having massive ramifications for the daily lives of millions of unsuspecting Americans, most of whom pay no attention to foreign affairs. The video below lays out the stakes in rather stark terms.

For a deeper dive on why Trump wants Greenland, see former Marine officer Brian Berletic’s excellent article on why Trump sees this Arctic island as necessary for the U.S. to expand its global proxy war against Russia. If NATO can take Ukraine and then fully militarize Greenland, it will have Russia completely hemmed in with nowhere to go and nothing to do but submit to Western dictates. I don’t believe Putin will find that acceptable and so Trump is risking U.S. national security by giving the Russian leader no options other than war or total capitulation and humiliation. It’s never a good idea to place a nuclear-armed military superpower in that position.

I get it that the U.S. is desperate. Its empire is waning, its dollar failing and its economy suffering. But using our military to run roughshod over the sovereignty of other nations is not the way to fix those problems. It will backfire on us, and when it does, most of those cheering the bully on will be caught completely off guard and unprepared for the aftermath. It could be a crackdown in the opposite direction.

Think back to your schoolyard days. The bully’s power lay in the fact that other kids were afraid to confront him. But when one of them finally mustered the courage to confront the bully, they realized he was not as strong as everyone had thought because he was careful always to exert his will over obviously weaker opponents, then brag about how strong he is. When the bully finally gets smacked down, what happens? His soft underbelly is finally exposed. No one comes to his aid. In fact, they all rush in to stomp on his face.

It’s time for Americans to wake up and prepare for a future where our country is no longer admired, no longer the envy of the world. Instead, it’s become an international pariah, a rogue state, headed by an out-of-control imperial president who answers to no one. What he wants, he just takes, making new enemies at every step. Congress fiddles while Rome burns. The days of the republic are gone. We have entered something new, something like an imperial presidency. The Roman Empire, interestingly, went through this same transition. Once Rome became an imperialistic power focused on foreign conquests, it lost its way and eventually crumbled from within.

Donald Trump, love him or hate him, has undeniably increased the power of the office of the presidency. And, like everything else Trump touches, he’s doing it in grand fashion and in warp speed. Even the corporate media seems to have grown timid, afraid of being too critical. Might he shut them down?

That kind of unchecked power in the hands of a centralized authority never turns out for the good of the people, regardless of whether it comes from the left (communism) or the right (fascism).

I could foresee a scenario as we head into the 2026 midterm elections. Trump gets the U.S. involved in a major war on three or four fronts – in Latin America, in Europe, in the Middle East, and possibly in the Far East. The Democrats pull off a sweeping victory, move to impeach him, and then Trump declares martial law and basically shuts down Congress, declaring them a national-security threat. A false-flag attack could add to the drama and further grease the skids of public opinion behind Trump’s decision to take such drastic action.

I’m not suggesting that things will play out in exactly this manner in 2026, I’m merely saying that I would not be surprised if it did. Because, as we’ve seen over this last year, when it comes to Trump, all bets are off. And if he will act the way he’s acting against sovereign nations which stand in his way internationally, what’s to stop him from acting with the same audacity against sovereign citizens who make a stand against him here at home?

Pray for peace. Prepare for war.

As scripture says, you will know them by their fruits. You can see something has changed in Trump. You can see it in Lindsey Graham and others who relish this kind of unrestrained use of American military power. These men aren’t for “America first.” They are captives of their own pride and greed and are willing to spill blood in order to obtain what they want. We deny that truth at our own risk.