American economist Jeffrey Sachs has invoked a metaphor attributed to former U.S. President John F. Kennedy – "He who rides a tiger will be eaten by it" – to caution Europe about its current predicament. Europe, Sachs said, has long been complicit in what he described as a predatory, U.S.-led "imperial" world order, and is now finding itself "on the menu." Sachs argued that when the United States "kidnapped" Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, European leaders did not object because they viewed him as "a bad guy." However, he said, those same leaders now strongly oppose U.S. ambitions toward Greenland. He also remarked that The New York Times has recently acknowledged what he described as the United States' imperial tendencies. "There's a lot of naivety and hypocrisy," Sachs concluded.