During a new rambling and provocative press conference, organized from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, Donald Trump repeated Tuesday, January 7, his ambitions to annex the Panama Canal and Greenland once inaugurated president, as well as his wish for a merger with Canada. The countries concerned were quick to respond to the future tenant of the White House, insisting on their sovereignty.
“The president, José Raúl Mulino, has already declared that the sovereignty of our canal is not negotiable,” said Panama’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Javier Martinez-Acha, adding that the canal was “an irreversible conquest.” . During his press conference, Donald Trump refused to rule out the idea of using force to annex the Panama Canal and Greenland. “I can’t assure you, on either of them,” he replied after being questioned on the subject. The president-elect has already stated on several occasions that he wants to take over the Panama Canal, built by the United States and inaugurated in 1914, if the price of tolls for American ships is not reduced. He further criticized the agreement made in 1977 by then-President Jimmy Carter, which resulted in the transfer of control of the canal to Panama in 1999.
“Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders”
Just before Christmas, the president-elect also judged that control of Greenland was “an absolute necessity” for “national security and freedom around the world”. On Tuesday, he again urged Denmark to “give up” on this autonomous territory. While her son, Donald Trump Jr, was in Greenland at the time on a private visit as a “tourist”, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen insisted on television, saying that “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders”, at the time of Donald Trump Jr’s arrival at Nuuk airport.
“Never has an elected American president so blatantly threatened to use force to expand his country’s territorial borders,” comments The New York Times. For the American daily, the president’s statements show that the way he defines his slogan “America First” is “anything but isolationist”. “He approaches American foreign policy with the mentality of a real estate developer, with a penchant for land grabbing.”
“Canada will never be part of the United States”
Shortly after the announcement of the resignation on Monday of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Donald Trump also estimated that Canada should “merge” with the United States, a remark mentioned several times in recent weeks and which annoys the neighbor of the north. The Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, responded on Tuesday that Canada would “never back down from threats”. “President-elect Trump’s comments demonstrate a complete misunderstanding of what makes Canada a strong country,” she added. While Justin Trudeau, who remains in office until a successor is named, added: “Never, ever, will Canada be part of the United States.” Which did not prevent Donald Trump from posting a map of the United States which includes Canada a few hours later on his Truth Social network.
“Donald Trump’s imperialist designs on Greenland, Canada and Panama often resemble the ramblings of a real estate shark who equates foreign and trade policy with a hunt for new agreements,” analyzes the channel CNN. His attitude also embodies the “America First” principle, underlines the American channel, which consists of using the force of the United States to relentlessly pursue narrow national interests, even while constraining smaller allied powers. “If many consider the words [du] president-elect as trolling, for Trump’s advisers, they are part of a broader plan to curb the influence of China and Russia,” notes the Washington Post. Another shocking announcement, a priori more symbolic: Donald Trump affirmed that upon his return to the White House, on January 20, the United States would change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America”.