Trump, Musing About American Territorial Expansion, Takes Aim at Greenland, Panama, Denmark

President Trump is making moves to use tariffs and other economic pressure to try to expand America’s territory. At a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, the president-elect did not rule out the use of military assets to take Greenland and the Panama Canal, confirmed he may use “economic force” as leverage against Canada, and announced he would rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”His most serious plan seem to be directed at Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark, which has governed the world’s largest island as a territory since 1979. Trump says that military action is not off the table, but economic attacks seem far more realistic.The use of military force against a territory of Denmark, a fellow NATO member, could present an interesting challenge for the incoming administration because Article 5 states that an attack on one member is an attack on all members and would require retaliation against the aggressor.Trump also said he would follow through on his threat to re-acquire the Panama Canal, which was forfeited by President Carter — whose body will lie in state at the Capitol beginning on Thursday. “I can say this: we need [Greenland and the Canal] for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military,” Trump said. “The Panama Canal is vital to our country. … They’ve abused that gift. Giving the Panama Canal [to the Panamanians] is why Jimmy Carter lost the election, in my opinion.”Trump said he believes that the people of Greenland will likely vote for either independence from Denmark or for admittance to America as a new state, though he warned that if Denmark did not deal with him on the possibility of releasing Greenland, he would punish it economically. “I would tariff Denmark at a very high level,” the president-elect promised. The head of Denmark’s government, Prime Minister Frederiksen told the Danish outlet Nyheder on Tuesday that only the Greenlanders can decide their future, and pointed to recent comments by the Greenlandic prime minister, Múte Egede, who said Greenland should be independent. Mr. Egede “has been very, very clear,” Ms. Frederiksen says, “that there is a lot of support among the people of Greenland that Greenland is not for sale and will not be in the future either.”Trump has already dispatched his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., to the north Atlantic island, where he is meeting with locals alongside his father’s staff and supporters. On Tuesday, conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who is a close friend of the Trump family, posted a video online of young Greenlanders saying they love the president-elect. As with all states currently in the Union, the admittance of new states and territories requires an act of Congress, according to the Congressional Research Service. The Democratic governor of Colorado, Jared Polis, said he would support Greenland joining the Union as a state, but with one condition. “If it’s the choice of the people of Greenland to join the greatest country on earth, I would welcome them as our 53rd state, right after we admit Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. as states,” Mr. Polis wrote on X. The president-elect also focused his expansionist rhetoric on neighboring countries in a Mar-a-Lago press conference Tuesday. Following the fall of Prime Minister Trudeau, Trump reiterated his support for Canada joining the Union. Trump said he would use economic pressure to make deals with the Canadians on issues like drug trafficking and immigration. When asked how he would punish Canada for resisting, Trump responded: “Economic force, because Canada and the United States, that would really be something … it would be much better for national security.”Mr. Trudeau responded to Trump on Tuesday afternoon, saying that there “isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell” that Canada would become an American state.On renaming the Gulf of Mexico, Texas Republicans are already signaling support. When asked by The New York Sun if he would back the renaming, Senator Cornyn let out a laugh and said, “It’s fine with me!”Congressman Randy Weber, who represents a lengthy stretch of coastline in Texas running from Port Arthur to Freeport, said on X that he also supports the new name. Shortly after Trump’s declaration, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene announced she would soon introduce legislation to officially change the name of the Gulf. According to Fox News, Ms. Greene had already told her staff to begin drafting the legislation on Tuesday afternoon.The president-elect’s obsession with territorial expansion and aggressive tariffs seems to affirm his love for President McKinley, for whom Trump plans to rename Denali — North America’s highest peak.“They took his name off Mount McKinley, right? That’s what they do to people,” Trump said in a recent speech. “That’s one of the reasons that we’re going to bring back the name of Mount McKinley, because I think he deserves it … That was not very gracious to somebody that did a good job.”

Trump, Musing About American Territorial Expansion, Takes Aim at Greenland, Panama, Denmark

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