At a press conference on Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump repeated his calls for the US to take the Panama Canal and Greenland and said he wouldn’t rule out the idea of military force.
When asked if he would avoid using economic and military coercion, Trump said, “I can’t assure you. You’re talking about Panama and Greenland. No, I can’t assure you on either of those two.”
Trump claims that the Panama Canal is controlled by China, but it is under the control of the Panama Canal Authority, a government agency of Panama. “Look, the Panama Canal is vital to our country, it’s being operated by China, China. And we gave the Panama Canal to Panama, we didn’t give it to China,” he said.
The president-elect has even alleged that Chinese soldiers are in the Panama Canal. “Christmas greetings to all, including the wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal,” he wrote on Truth Social on Christmas Day.
Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino called Trump’s claims “nonsense” and said the canal was under the full control of Panama. “There are no Chinese soldiers in the canal. You are free, the whole world is free to visit the canal if you please,” he said. “What [Trump] has said on this issue is nonsense; it does not exist.”
At the press conference on Tuesday, Trump criticized the deal that had been reached under the Carter administration, which handed the canal to Panama in 1999. He also said the fees for US ships to transit the canal were too high.
The president-elect also cited China to explain why he wanted to take Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. He said Denmark should “give up” Greenland for the “free world.” Greenland already hosts a US military base and is a founding member of NATO.
“They should give it up because we need it for national security,” Trump said. “You have Chinese ships all over the place. You have Russian ships all over the place. We’re not letting that happen.”
Trump has also been calling for the US to absorb Canada as a 51st state and said at the press conference that he could use “economic force” to achieve that goal. “Because Canada and the United States, that would really be something. 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,” he said.
The president-elect also said he intended to impose “substantial” tariffs on goods coming from Canada and Mexico due to trade deficits, illegal immigration, and drugs coming through the borders. He also outlined a plan to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.”
“We’re going to change because we do most of the work there, and it’s ours,” Trump said. “It’s appropriate, and Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country.”
