Donald Trump is pretty good when he shoots from the hip.

As when he swooped into Caracas to capture wanted Venezuelan drug kingpin Nicolas Maduro, an event that shocked the world.

Or when he sent in the amazing U.S. B-2 stealth bombers to take out Iran’s nuclear capability in an extraordinary and astounding mission that military historians will study for years.

It is when he shoots from the lip instead of the hip that he gets into trouble, like when he suggested that he could invade Greenland and attach it to the U.S.

Or when he minimized the role that NATO countries played in the fighting during the long war in Afghanistan.

As far as Greenland, population 57,000, is concerned, the mistake Prime Minister Mute Egede made was not firing back by threatening to invade the U.S.

He could have said, “Mr. President, let’s make a deal. If you don’t invade us, we won’t invade you.”

While it is true that the entire population of the territory of Denmark could fit comfortably in Gillette Stadium, it is the roar of the mouse that counts rather than its size.

Movie buffs will recall the 1997 movie “Wag the Dog,” where a beleaguered U.S. president facing reelection and a sex scandal, (sound familiar?) hires spin doctor Conrad Brean (Robert De Niro) to create a fake war with tiny Albania.

Brean hires Hollywood film producer Stanley Motts (Dustin Hoffman) to orchestrate and execute the plan.

Together, in those pre-social media days, the public became so engrossed with the phony narrative that it allowed the president to rebound in the ratings, at least temporarily.

Were Trump the president in that story — or had he seen the movie — he, shooting from the lip would have accused Greenland of having a secret weapon aimed at the U.S., hence the necessity of the threat of invasion.

And he would not have needed any spin doctors or Hollywood producers to make his case. Trump produces his own narrative and spin. Like he did with Greenland. While fellow NATO members are upset over Trump shooting from the lip over invading Greenland over the need for U.S. national security, in the end, Trump worked out the framework of a deal that will give him what he wants.

And neither country will invade the other.

But sometimes shooting from the lip can backfire, as it did when Trump, a longtime critic of NATO, minimized the role of NATO during the Afghanistan War.

Trump, in a Fox Business interview, said of NATO military assistance in Afghanistan, “We’ve never needed them. We have never really asked anything of them.”

Shooting from the lip, Trump said, “You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan or this or that. And they did. They stayed a little back, little off the front lines.”

Trump’s comments came after he had already roiled NATO members at the Davos conference over invading Greenland.

No sooner did Trump make those remarks than the sleet hit the fan.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, noting that the British suffered 457 soldiers killed fighting alongside U.S. forces, called Trump’s remarks “insulting” and “appalling.”  The U.S losses were 2,460 troops killed in Afghanistan.

Even Trump buddy Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, chastised Trump, calling his remarks “unacceptable.” Italy had 53 soldiers killed.

Trump later walked back his remarks and called the British soldiers “among the greatest of warriors.”

But he failed to mention the sacrifices made in Afghanistan by other NATO allies, like Canada, 159, France, 90, Germany, 62, Poland, 44; Denmark, 43, and so on, for a total of 3,621. Even little Albania had two soldiers killed.

It is what happens when you shoot from the lip.

Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas can be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com

President Donald Trump points during the 56th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 21. (Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone via AP)