These Days Before the Vote: "The fourth is freedom from fear..."

Whitewater, Wis. — This clear Thursday evening in Wisconsin continues These Days Before the Vote, a series addressing, each day before the November election, a principle or position on which our liberal democratic tradition rests.

In his January 6, 1941, address to Congress, Roosevelt offered a fourth freedom of his set of four:

The fourth is freedom from fear – which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor – anywhere in the world.

See Franklin D. Roosevelt, Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union (Jan. 6, 1941), Nat’l Archives.

Instead of a world with fewer armaments and fewer wars, Trump has unleashed ill-considered and ill-planned violence on the world.

Only a few months returned to office, Trump began to threaten Greenland, Trump threatened Greenland, an autonomous territory within NATO member Denmark, in an interview with NBC News:

WELKER: But you are not ruling out military force to take Greenland one day?

THE PRESIDENT: I don't rule it out. I don't say I'm going to do it, but I don't rule out anything. No, not there. We need–we need Greenland very badly. Greenland is a very small amount of people, which we'll take care of, and we'll cherish them, and all of that. But we need that for international security. Do you know, we have Russian boats and we have Chinese boats, gun ships all over the place—aircraft carriers, gun ships—going up and down the coast of Greenland. We–we need that to be protected. Internationally we need it.

WELKER: So you are willing to send U.S. troops to claim a sovereign territory?

THE PRESIDENT: I didn't say that. You asked me a question, "Would you, is there a circumstance?" It could happen. I doubt it will, but it certainly could happen with respect to Greenland.

See Interview with Kristin Welker of NBC News "Meet the Press," May 4, 2025.

In June 2025, Trump ordered the American bombing of Iranian nuclear enrichment sites. A year later, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that it could not determine the location of 440 kilograms of previously declared highly enriched uranium:

It is now almost one year that the Agency has had no access to any of the declared nuclear facilities affected by the military attacks of June 2025, therefore the Agency has lost continuity of knowledge of the previously declared nuclear material at those facilities. This gives rise to a proliferation concern as this nuclear material includes 440 kg of highly enriched uranium, which the Agency has not been able to verify since June 2025. 

See Rafael Mariano Grossi, Introductory Statement to the Board of Governors, Int’l Atomic Energy Agency (June 8, 2026).

He has spread war across the Middle East. In late February, Trump joined with Israel in prolonged attacks on Iran. Within three weeks, Iranian missile and drone attacks were striking across Gulf states, causing civilian deaths and spreading the conflict far beyond original combatants' expectations or preparedness.

He has ordered dozens of strikes against boats in the Pacific and Caribbean, without congressional authorization, leading to many dozens of deaths:

“Based on the very sparse information provided publicly by the US authorities, none of the individuals on the targeted boats appeared to pose an imminent threat to the lives of others or otherwise justified the use of lethal armed force against them under international law,” [UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk] said.

See US Strikes in Caribbean and Pacific Breach International Law, Says UN Rights Chief, U.N. News, October 31, 2025.

On January 3, 2026, Trump ordered U.S. forces to strike targets in Venezuela, capturing Nicolás Maduro and his wife, and taking them to the United States. Trump then said the United States would temporarily “run” Venezuela and sell its oil. See Regina Garcia Cano, Konstantin Toropin, and Eric Tucker, US Plans to ‘Run’ Venezuela and Tap Its Oil Reserves, Trump Says, After Operation to Oust Maduro, Associated Press, January 3, 2026.

And yet, and yet, Trump calls himself the "president of peace" while continuing to insist, unbeknownst to any independent observer, that he has ended eight wars. (The number would have been higher, I suppose, had he not started the Iran War.)

Where Roosevelt sought to end wars, an unthinking, impulsive, violent Trump spreads violence and destruction.