Donald Trump, who will be president in January, seems to be thinking about expanding American territory in a way that, if he’s serious, would be on par with the Louisiana Purchase or the deal that got Alaska from Russia.
He has been making fun of Canadian officials for the past week by saying that the US could take in its northern neighbor and make it the 51st state. He said he would take over the Panama Canal, which was built by the US and has been run by its named country for 25 years. And on Sunday, he brought up again his wish to get Greenland, a Danish territory he has long wanted.
It’s not always easy to tell the difference between Trump’s real policy proposals and his rhetorical flourishes meant to get the media’s attention or get his supporters excited. At other times, it seemed like his provocations were the first shots in his attempts to make a deal.
In fact, when Trump said this weekend that he would take back the Panama Canal, he gave the country a way to avoid his anger: lower fees for American ships that use the canal to move between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
“So to the officials of Panama, please follow these rules,” he told a group of right activists in Arizona on Sunday.
Still, the ideas are eerily similar in that they all aim to make the United States’ presence felt around the world. And for someone who said during the campaign that the US should stay out of other countries’ affairs, these ideas sound a lot like the ideology of Manifest Destiny, which said that the US had a divine right to spread across the continent.
On Sunday night, Trump said that the United States had to own Greenland for “purposes of national security and freedom throughout the world.” He wanted to take over the Panama Canal, which he called a “vital national asset” even though the US hasn’t had control of it in decades. This was part of a nationalist plan that Trump often calls “America First.”
Trump also said again this weekend in Arizona that he wants to label drug gangs as foreign terrorist organizations. This could be the first step toward using military force in Mexico. Trump has said he will drop bombs on fentanyl labs and send special forces to kill cartel leaders. This could be an invasion of Mexico’s territory and cause problems with the US’s biggest trade partner.
Instead of telling CNN about Trump’s recent comments and social media posts, his transition team refused to say whether his most recent statements are based on real goals or something else.
A lot of people in and around Trump’s transition team couldn’t figure out where his sudden interest in what was going on at the Panama Canal came from, since he didn’t talk about it during the campaign. One adviser, on the other hand, said that Trump often supports issues brought to his attention by anyone, from longtime friends to new acquaintances, if it moves him. Since he won the election last month, Trump has spent most of his days at his Palm Beach home hosting close friends, business leaders, donors, and heads of state.
Concerns about how US companies are treated in Panama probably hit home for Trump because “trade is top of mind for him.” Putting pressure on Panama to lower fees for ships that use the canal could also help balance out the expected rise in prices of goods due to the tariffs Trump plans to put on foreign goods.
Florida GOP Rep. Carlos Gimenez said of Trump’s words on Fox Business on Monday, “I always take him seriously, even though they may sound a little out there.” “It really is a threat to Panama.”
In a long post on social media in both Spanish and English, President JosĂ© RaĂșl Mulino of Panama said that the port’s ownership was “not negotiable.” The canal was built at the turn of the 20th century and was run by the US until 1999, when it was totally turned over to Panama. This happened because of a treaty signed by President Jimmy Carter twenty years before that guaranteed the US would always be able to use the canal.
“I want to make it clear that every square meter of the Panama Canal and the land around it belongs to Panama and always will,” Mulino wrote.
The reaction didn’t stop Trump and his supporters, though. They reacted on social media with memes and pictures that backed up his latest cause even more.
On Truth Social, Trump wrote, “Welcome to the United States Canal.” He also shared a picture of a US flag floating on the water.
In an interview with CNN en Español reporter Andres Oppenheimer that will air this Sunday, Mulino laughed off Trump’s claim that Panama isn’t doing enough to keep the canal running. “That shows that you know very little about history.” The canal will be 25 years old on December 31. It has been owned and run by Panama since the US gave it over, and he talked about the work that Panama has done, including an expansion project, that “leaves multimillion-dollar profits for our national economy.”
Trump first tried to buy Greenland from Denmark during his first term, but it was turned down as well.
In a Facebook post on Monday, Mute Egede, the prime minister of the Danish region that is not part of Denmark, said, “Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale.”
The office of Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen agreed with Egede. Frederiksen said that Trump’s idea that Greenland could be bought during his first term was “absurd.”
“The government can’t wait to work with the new Trump administration.” A statement released Monday said, “Transatlantic cooperation is crucial in a situation as complicated as the one we are currently facing in terms of security and politics.” “The Prime Minister’s Office has nothing to say about what was said about Greenland other than to repeat what the Premier of Greenland said, which is that Greenland is not for sale but is open to working with other countries,” the statement said.
Trump first talked about the idea in private and then confirmed it in public in 2019, but he later played down his desire.
At the time, he said, “Strategically, it’s interesting, and we’d be interested. But we’ll talk with them for a while.” “I can tell you that it’s not the most important thing on the stove.”
But he brought up the idea again on Sunday in a news release in which he named Ken Howery, co-founder of PayPay, as his choice to be ambassador to Denmark.
Trump’s plan to take Canada seems much less serious and more like a public jab at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after the two of them recently had dinner at Mar-a-Lago. This idea has been brought up by the president-elect again and again on social media.
A few days ago, he wrote, “I think it’s a great idea.”
This happened because Trump made another threat, this time to put 25% taxes on goods coming from Canada and Mexico. This shows how he negotiates with other countries’ leaders.
In many ways, the gamble paid off: leaders from both countries quickly tried to get together with Trump to reaffirm their promise to help the US with border issues. It also gave Trump an early way to say he had won against a foreign enemy.
In a new statement, Trump’s transition team said, “President Trump Is Securing the Border, and He Hasn’t Even Taken Office Yet.”
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