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First it was Canada, then the Panama Canal. Now, Donald Trump Greenland again.
The president-elect renews failed talks he made in his first term for the US to buy Greenland from Denmark, added to the list of allied countries with which he picks fights, even before he took office on January 20.
In an announcement on Sunday citing his ambassador to Denmark, Trump wrote that, “For purposes of national security and freedom in the world, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”
Trump’s renewed plans for Greenland comes after the president-elect suggested over the weekend that the US could retake control of the Panama Canal if nothing is done to reduce the rising shipping costs required to use the waterway. It connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
He also suggested that Canada become the 51st state of the United States and referred to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “governor” of the “Great State of Canada.”
Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, said Trump’s courting of friendly countries hearkens back to an aggressive style he used during his days in business.
“You ask for something unreasonable and it’s more likely that you can get something less unreasonable,” said Farnsworth, who is also the author of the book “Presidential Communication and Character.”
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Greenland, the world’s largest island, is located between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. It is 80% covered by ice and is home to a large US military base. It received home rule from Denmark in 1979 and its head of government, Múte Bourup Egede, suggested that Trump’s latest calls for US control would be as meaningless as those in his first term.
“Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale,” he said in a statement. “We must not lose our years-long fight for freedom.”
Trump canceled a 2019 visit to Denmark after his offer to buy Greenland was rejected by Copenhagen, ultimately coming to nothing.
He also suggested on Sunday that the US would be “derailed” at the Panama Canal.
“If the principles, both moral and legal, of this great gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America, completely, quickly and without question,” he said.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino responded in a video that “every square meter of the canal belongs to Panama and that will continue,” but Trump fired back on his social media page, “We’ll see!”
The president-elect also posted a photo of an American flag planted in the canal zone under the phrase, “Welcome to the United States Canal!”
The United States built the canal in the early 1900s, but ceded control to Panama on December 31, 1999, under a treaty signed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter.
The channel depends on reservoirs that were hit by 2023 drought that forced it to substantially reduce the number of daily slots for crossing ships. With fewer ships, administrators also increased the fees that shippers are charged to reserve slots to use the channel.
The Greenland and Panama flareups followed Trump recently posting that “Canadians want Canada to become the 51st state” and offering a picture of himself on a mountaintop surveying the surrounding area next to a Canadian flag.
Trudeau suggested Trump was joking about annexing his country, but the pair recently met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to discuss Trump’s threats to impose a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods .
“Canada will not become part of the United States, but Trump’s comments are more about leveraging what he says to get concessions from Canada by putting Canada off balance, especially given the current precarious political environment in Canada,” Farnsworth said. . “Maybe claim gains on trade concessions, a tighter border or other things.”
He said the situation is similar to Greenland.
“What Trump wants is a win,” Farnsworth said. “And even if the American flag doesn’t fly over Greenland, Europeans might be more willing to say yes to something else because of the pressure.”
—Associated Press Writer Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.
& copy 2024 The Canadian Press
