It’s an erratic press conference, just like him. Donald Trump received the press for several hours this Tuesday, January 7, at his residence in Mar-a-Lago in Florida, to answer their questions thirteen days before his inauguration. The future American president particularly spoke about his plans to annex the Panama Canal and Greenland, but also Canada, making his territorial ambitions ever more concrete. A look back at the main lessons from this pell-mell press conference, which alone testifies to the instability that the return of Donald Trump to the White House could cause in the world.
The refusal to rule out armed intervention in Greenland and the Panama Canal…
Donald Trump has refused to rule out the idea of using force to annex the Panama Canal and Greenland. “I can’t assure you about either of them,” said the president-elect, when asked about a possible use of armed forces to annex the canal, a vital artery of global maritime transport, and Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. Adding that the two territories were “very important to the economic security” of the United States.
A sign of this very concrete desire, the son of American President-elect Donald Trump Jr began a private visit to Greenland this Tuesday. If the latter claimed when he got off his plane to be there as a “tourist” and not to have planned any official meetings, Donald Trump was quite clear about his intentions for the island this Monday on his social network TruthSocial. “Greenland is an incredible place and its people, if and when they become part of our nation, will benefit enormously […] MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!”
…and the threat of “economic force” against Canada
Another neighbor directly targeted in his final days by the future American president: Canada. Donald Trump threatened to use “economic force” against Ottawa, after having affirmed the day before that it was in the interest of this ally of the United States to become the American “51st state”.
“No, economic force,” the president-elect responded to the question of whether he planned to use the armed forces to annex Canada, saying that this neighbor was “subsidized” by the United States for its protection.
“5% of GDP” in defense budget for NATO countries
US President-elect Donald Trump has assured that NATO member countries must increase their defense budgets to 5% of their GDP. “They can all afford it,” said the Republican billionaire, who will take office on January 20, adding that they “should be at 5%, not 2%.”
This amount is not a figure given in the air: according to an article in Financial Times published this Tuesday, Donald Trump’s team has already expressed this new requirement of 5% of GDP to NATO member states, while the United States has spent nearly 3.1% of GDP to their defense in 2024. Other information that is far from negligible: Donald Trump now intends to maintain American military deliveries to kyiv after his inauguration, according to the American newspaper.
Another source interviewed by the FT claims to have understood that the future American president would in reality demand that his allies increase up to 3.5% of their GDP in defense budgets. But that increased spending in this sector would lead to more favorable trade conditions with the United States.
The Gulf of Mexico, now “Gulf of America”
Donald Trump announced that upon his return to the White House, the United States would change the name of the Gulf of Mexico, on the country’s southern coast, to the “Gulf of America”. “We are going to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which sounds good and covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America, what a nice name,” declared the future American president, before castigating the Mexico which “must stop letting millions of people flow into our country”.
Emirati investment of $20 billion in the United States for AI
Donald Trump also announced an Emirati investment of $20 billion to build new data centers in the United States, IT infrastructures in high demand with the rise of artificial intelligence. This investment will allow the United States “to remain at the cutting edge of technology,” said the Republican. “AI is important in data centers, and it’s going to be a hot topic in the coming years,” he added.
According to him, Emirati billionaire Hussein Sajwani promised “at least 20 billion”. “Maybe they will double, maybe they will even more than double this amount,” he said, regarding the Emirati real estate giant Damac Properties, Hussein Sajwani’s company. The two men have been doing business together for years. Damac Properties notably built the Trump International Golf Club, inaugurated in Dubai in February 2017, three months after the first election of Donald Trump.
Meta’s change of heart on fact-checking, his victory
Donald Trump judged that he had “probably” influenced the decision of Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) to cease its fact-checking operations in the United States. Meta and Facebook “have made a lot of progress”, judged the Republican president-elect, questioned about this announcement, before responding “probably” to a journalist who asked him if he believed that the boss of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, had acted thus due to threats that Donald Trump had issued in the past.