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why didn't Trump just seize Greenland outright, like he seemed to allude to in so many ways? Is this just to keep the appearance of a sort-of-unified West?

Just like the tariffs, it was the threat of it that made the countries respond. In many cases, the US was open to negotiate the tariff rate but many countries would be happy to offer something in exchange for a lesser rate. I don’t think the US genuinely wanted to invade, but a convincing threat will force a reaction out of someone.

Of course, I am just speculating here. Take everything I said with a grain of salt.

So far, we have seen very little of any re-industrialization going on.

Correct. There is no way for the US to seriously re-industrialize, for two reasons:

1. The revival of industrial capital would strengthen labor movements and trade unions in the US, which they took decades to kill off. The bourgeoisie would not want a repeat of this.
2. The industrial capital would start to compete with the rentier finance capital, which will not be allowed under the Wall Street dominated economy of the US.

The US is walking a tightrope of maintaining the hegemony of finance capital, while also having to suppress the domestic dissent from the working class who are increasingly disillusioned and disenfranchised by the system.

This is where Europe comes in. The EU has a large market that can absorb US goods to revive some level of US industries, so (and this is based on Varoufakis’s thesis) the EU de-industrializing itself and forced to sustain US industrial economy makes sense.

China, despite its huge population, is having a lot of trouble boosting its domestic consumption economy, so Trump cannot really take advantage of China here. China is arguably having a worse problem with deflation right now so it does not have the capacity to import, which is exactly what is needed by Trump to reduce trade deficit. So it has to be Europe.

The tariffs have achieved almost nothing here.

The tariffs have caused global export flow to be rerouted, the most prominent being China shifting its export away from the US and towards the EU, as well as Southeast Asia which acts as intermediaries. The outcome is that the EU and other exporter countries have to run up trade deficits against China, which will further destroy the domestic industries of these countries as they find themselves unable to compete with Chinese products. So, these countries now become even more reliant on the US consumer market, and are thus amenable to signing trade deals with Trump.

As the EU fails to compete with Chinese goods such as EVs and green tech, the failing economy will open itself up for extraction by the US.

And all these US policies are beginning to alienate Europeans - surely this cannot continue forever without breaking some links, however much Washington wants to push this line? Is this part of the reason why they didn't go 100% all out for Greenland? And of course I can easily see Europe fall in line after another Democrat takes power. They loved Biden more than anyone and happily let themselves be sleepwalked into the Ukraine disaster.

I don’t think the US wants to go back to the old relations. Europe is being disciplined here. The EU and the eurozone are an actual challenge to the US-dominated dollar regime. Funnily enough, China and the RMB aren’t even interested in challenging the dollar hegemony so they are not even the major target here.

The work to disintegrate the EU already started in the 1990s with the Balkan conflicts. What you’re seeing today is simply a continuation of a project that had started as soon as the EU was established in 1993.

Again, take everything I said with a grain of salt though. I am seeing the world through a very specific lens and many others probably won’t have the same takes as mine.