President Donald Trump has taken a bad situation and made it worse. His recent text messages to the prime minister of Norway about the U.S. administration’s desire to acquire Greenland were extraordinarily uncouth, self-defeating, and, to speak plainly, almost deranged.

On Saturday, Trump exchanged text messages with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre about America’s hope to acquire Greenland. Gahr, speaking both for himself and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, texted back in an attempt to de-escalate what has become a crisis in relations between America and its European allies.