In the space of an hour, US president-elect Donald Trump called for absorbing Canada, declined to rule out using military force to seize the Panama Canal and Greenland, demanded NATO allies spend 5 percent of GDP on defense and vowed “all hell would break loose” in the Middle East if Hamas does not release Israeli hostages before he takes office.
He also promised to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
“What a beautiful name — and it’s appropriate,” Trump told a news conference on Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Photo: AFP
He did not explain how any of these improbable pledges would come to pass, beyond threatening to impose tariffs on nations, including Denmark, that do not cooperate.
However, the rambling session erased any doubt that Trump plans to take foreign policy to new precedent-shattering levels when he takes office in less than two weeks.
Panama has already vowed not to give up the canal, and Denmark says it has no plans to cede control of Greenland.
Photo: Emil Stach and Ritzau Scanpix via AFP
Trump did not mention that the US has not spent 5 percent of GDP on defense since the 1980s. The current figure is about 3 percent.
However, the rhetoric all fits with a far more emboldened stance, to say and do almost whatever he wants given the mandate he believes he received for a second term after winning the popular and electoral votes.
If Trump’s foreign policy approach in his first term flirted with trolling the rest of the world, he is taking it to a new level this time around — and well before his second term even starts.
The maximalist positions hold appeal for a president who has openly expressed respect for autocrats including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
No US president has overseen the expansion of US territory since 1947, when then-US president Harry Truman oversaw the acquisition of several small Pacific Ocean island chains from Japan in the aftermath of World War II.
Halfway through his news conference on Tuesday, Trump summoned his appointed Middle East envoy, real-estate investor and golf buddy Steve Witkoff, to the stage.
“If they’re not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East,” Trump said of the hostages being held by Hamas.
Amid the speculation about Greenland, his son Donald Jr flew to Nuuk, the territory’s capital, for what he described as nothing more than a day trip.
However, he brought his father’s anointed head of presidential personnel, Sergio Gor, and popular right-wing podcaster Charlie Kirk along for the trip.
Some members of the group wore “Trump Force One” jackets with their names embroidered on the lapel.
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