Trump escalates feuds with Canada, Greenland, Panama
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The news: US president-elect Donald Trump has declined to rule out using military or economic action in order to exert greater US influence on allies Denmark, Canada and Panama.
The context: Trump, who takes office in two weeks, declined to explicitly rule out a military confrontation to win US control over Greenland or the Panama Canal during a news conference at his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate today.
“I can’t assure you on either of those two, but I can say this, we need them for economic security,” Trump said.
Trump said he would use “high-level” tariffs to persuade Denmark to give up Greenland, which is a self-ruling territory of the country.
He also said he would use “economic force” to compel Canada to become the 51st state in the US. Canada's minister of foreign affairs, Mélanie Joly, later posted on social media platform X, that Trump's comments showed “a complete lack of understanding of what makes Canada a strong country”.
The remarks came after Trump earlier suggested he would look to expand US influence in the western hemisphere, including by changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”.
The sources: Trump Mar-a-Lago address, Mélanie Joly X post
