First it was Canada, then the Panama Canal. Now, Donald Trump wants Greenland again.
The president-elect is renewing unsuccessful calls he made during his first term for the US to buy Greenland from Denmark, adding to the list of countries the alliance has started fighting with even before he took office on January 20.
In a statement issued Sunday by his ambassador to Denmark, Trump wrote, “For the purposes of National Security and Liberty around the World, the United States of America feels that ownership and control of Greenland is absolutely necessary.”
Trump's plans for Greenland also come after the president-elect suggested over the weekend that the US may regain control of the Panama Canal if something can be done to ease rising shipping costs needed to use the waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
He has also been advocating for Canada to become the 51st state of the US and has called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the “ruler” of the “Great State of Canada.”
Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, said Trump's approach to friendly countries is a return to the aggressive style he used in his business days.
“You ask something that doesn't make sense and you're more likely to get something that doesn't make sense,” said Farnsworth, who is also the author of the book “Presidential Communication and Character.”
Get daily world news
Get the day's top news, politics, economics, and current affairs, delivered to your inbox once a day.
Greenland, the world's largest island, sits between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. It is 80% covered in snow and is home to a large US military base. It gained home rule in Denmark in 1979 and its head of government, Múte Bourup Egede, suggested that Trump's recent calls for US control would be as futile as those made during his first term.
“Greenland is ours. We are not selling and we will not be sold,” he said in a statement. “We must not lose our age-long fight for freedom.”
Trump canceled his visit to Denmark in 2019 after his offer to buy Greenland was rejected by Copenhagen, and eventually ended.
He also suggested on Sunday that the US is being “pulled out” of the Panama Canal.
“If the principles, moral and legal, of this great act of charity are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America, in full, immediately and without hesitation,” he said.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino responded in a video saying “every square meter of the canal belongs to Panama and will continue,” but Trump responded on his social media, “We'll see about that!”
The president-elect also posted a photo of an American flag planted in the canal under the caption, “Welcome to the United States Canal!”
The United States built the canal in the early 1900s but relinquished control to Panama on December 31, 1999, under an agreement signed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter.
The canal relies on lakes that were hit by the 2023 drought which forced it to drastically reduce the number of daily crossing slots. With fewer ships, regulators also increased fees charged to shippers to reserve slots to use the canal.
The outbreak in Greenland and Panama followed Trump recently posting that “Canadians want Canada to be the 51st state” and offering a photo of himself perched on top of a mountain surveying the area next to the Canadian flag.
Trudeau suggested Trump was joking about taking over his country, but the pair met recently 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 be a part of the United States, but Trump's comments are about using what he says to gain Canadian approval by putting Canada in a good position, especially given the critical political situation in Canada,” Farnsworth said. “Maybe he asked for a win on trade deals, a hard border or other things.”
He said the situation is similar to Greenland.
“What Trump wants is to win,” Farnsworth said. And even if the American flag does not fly high over Greenland, Europeans may be more willing to accept something else under pressure.”
— Associate Correspondent Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
