Donald Trump has refused to rule out utilizing drive to acquire Greenland or take management of the Panama Canal, as he vowed to rename the Gulf of Mexico because the “Gulf of America”.
In a freewheeling press convention lower than two weeks earlier than he takes workplace, the US president-elect threatened to make use of his nation’s financial and army may towards conventional allies to additional nationwide safety and territorial enlargement.
Requested whether or not he would exclude using army or financial coercion to amass Greenland or assume management of the Panama Canal, he mentioned: “No, I can’t assure you on either of those two. But I can say this, we need them for economic security . . . We need Greenland for national security reasons.”
At Tuesday’s press convention at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida, Trump vowed to “tariff Denmark at a very high level” except the nation gave up management of Greenland, which he had sought to purchase throughout his first time period of workplace.
Earlier on Tuesday Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen mentioned Greenland, which is an autonomous a part of the dominion of Denmark, was “not for sale” however burdened that she was eager to co-operate with Washington within the Arctic.
Responding to Trump’s newest feedback, she added that the US was Denmark’s “most important and closest ally” and that she didn’t have “the imagination to believe that we’ll get” to potential army or financial coercion to realize management of Greenland.
Trump has since 2019 sought management of the world’s largest island, which is residence to simply 56,000 individuals however central to the strategically important Arctic area.
He additionally argued at his press convention that the US wanted management of the Panama Canal, which the nation constructed greater than 100 years in the past, due to the channel’s strategic function.
“The Panama Canal is vital to our country,” he mentioned. “It’s being operated by China . . . And we gave the Panama Canal to Panama, we didn’t give it to China.”
Panama operates the Panama Canal, not China.
In an extra broadside at a conventional ally, Trump mentioned a US annexation of Canada “would really be something”, however would happen by way of “economic force” slightly than army motion.
“You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security. Don’t forget, we basically protect Canada,” he mentioned.
Citing US deficits with each international locations and an inflow of migrants throughout the US’s southern border, Trump mentioned he was ready to hit each Canada and Mexico with larger levies. “We’re going to put very serious tariffs on Mexico and Canada . . . then we want to get along with everybody,” he mentioned.
“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” he added. “What a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate.”
Trump labelled Mexico a “very dangerous place” that was “allowing millions of people to pour into our country” and was “essentially run by the [drug] cartels”.
Mexico has been residing by way of an unprecedented wave of homicides since 2009 with organised legal teams extending their attain from medication and migrant trafficking into oil theft and extortion.
When Trump initially urged imposing tariffs on Mexico and Canada quickly after his election in November, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum initially hinted at retaliatory measures.
Whereas the 2 leaders mentioned they subsequently had a cordial dialog, Sheinbaum is now getting ready for an onslaught of mass deportations, commerce limitations and stress for better US involvement in tackling the cartels.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded on social media that each international locations profit from being one another’s greatest buying and selling and safety accomplice. “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” he posted on X.
Extra reporting by Richard Milne and Ilya Gridneff
