In a shoot-from-the-lip news conference today, President-elect Donald Trump said the United States might take control of Greenland and the Panama Canal, and that the Palestinian Hamas terror outfit had better release hostages taken in its October 7, 2023 raid on Israel before he takes office.
Trump told reporters representing the far-left, hate-Trump mainstream media that the canal and Greenland, an autonomous territory that belongs to Denmark, are vital to U.S. national security interests.
And “all hell will break” loose in the Middle East if the hostages aren’t freed.
And one more thing: The Gulf of Mexico will soon become the Gulf of America.
No Use of Force
Trump has recently discussed buying Greenland from Denmark, and his son, Donald, Jr., landed in Greenland today.
With that in mind, a reporter asked if Trump could “assure the world” that he won’t use military force to take over Greenland and what is rightfully America’s canal.
“I can’t assure you,” the incoming 47th president said:
You’re talking about Panama and Greenland.… [W]e need them for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military…. It might be that you’ll have to do something.”
Trump noted that the canal is “vital to our country” yet “it’s being operated by China.”
“We gave the Panama Canal to Panama. We didn’t give it to China,” he continued, “and they’ve abused it.”
Trump said the foolish giveaway cost Carter the 1980 election, which Carter lost in a 44-state landslide for Ronald Reagan.
As for Greenland, “we need it for national security purposes.”
“People really don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it. But if they do they should give it up. because we need it for national security,” Trump continued. “That’s for the Free World. I’m talking about protecting the Free World.”
On Truth Social, Trump seemed to say he will seek to control the world’s largest island:
Not for Sale
During a television interview, Danish Prime Minister Minister Mette Frederiksen said the 836,300-square-mile territory is not for sale, The Hill reported:
Frederiksen said during a TV interview on Tuesday that Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Egede “has been very, very clear — 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.”
She also said the United States is Denmark’s “most important and closest ally” and that she didn’t believe Trump would use military or economic force to seize the island, The Associated Press reported.
In its report on Trump Jr.’s trip, CNN noted that the island is a major strategic asset for the United States. But it’s also the site of natural resources, some useful to the defense industry.
“These include oil and gas, as well as the rare earth metals in high demand for the electric cars and wind turbines of the green transition, as well as for manufacturing military equipment,” the network reported:
Currently China dominates global rare earth production and has already threatened to restrict the export of critical minerals and associated technologies, ahead of Trump’s second term.
“There is no question at all that Trump and his advisers are very concerned about the stranglehold that China appears to have,” Dodds told CNN. Greenland offers a potentially rich source of these critical minerals, he added. “I think Greenland is really about keeping China out.”
“I am hearing that the people of Greenland are ‘MAGA,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social yesterday, noting his son’s forthcoming trip.
“Greenland is an incredible place, and the people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our Nation,” he continued:
We will protect it, and cherish it, from a very vicious outside World. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!
Trump wrote over a video of a Greenlander who urged Trump to “buy us.”
Greenland is so large it could contain most of the American Midwest.
Watch Out, Hamas
As for Hamas, which is holding seven Americans, Trump laid out what would happen in no uncertain terms:
If those hostages aren’t back … by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East, and it will not be good for Hamas.… All hell will break out. I don’t have to say any more, but that’s what it is.
Trump said people are begging him to get the dead bodies of their children returned.
Gulf of America
Yet before discussing the canal and Greenland, Trump said the Gulf of Mexico would get a new name.
“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring that covers a lot of territory,” Trump said:
The Gulf of America. What a beautiful name, and it’s appropriate … and Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country. They can stop them.
Trump promised “very serious tariffs on Mexico and Canada” because of the illegal aliens and the illegal drugs that cross both borders.
