Canada, the Panama Canal and Now Greenland. What's Behind Trump's Expansionist Rhetoric?

President-elect Donald Trump recently said that the Panama Canal should once again come under American control, and that the US should buy Greenland from Denmark. If the United States doesn't control the Panama Canal and Greenland, China or Russia likely will, and the consequences could be severe both for the American economy and for national security. Pictured: An aerial view of ships passing the Pedro Miguel locks in the Panama Canal, in May 2023. (Photo by iStock/Getty Images)

First, President-elect Donald Trump tweaked Canada's far-left Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about becoming governor of the 51st state of the United States of America. Then he said that the Panama Canal should once again come under American control. Make that the 52nd state. And now, are you ready for a 53rd state? Last month, Trump renewed a call he made during his first term: that the United States should buy Greenland from Denmark. Could the man possibly be serious?

Maybe not. The left's propaganda arm, also known as the mainstream media, loves to portray Trump and his supporters as angry, bitter, ignorant people lashing out against the people who know better what's good for them. Trump has never gotten credit for his sense of humor, despite the fact that he is easily the funniest man to occupy the White House since Ronald Reagan, and may even surpass the Gipper.

Much of Trump's humor goes entirely unnoticed. Few have taken any note of the fact that his new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, recalls the Doge internet meme that Elon Musk briefly made Twitter's logo in 2023. And Trump's teasing of "Governor" Trudeau went so far over the head of MSNBC that the far-left garbage machine actually put out an article ascribing the gibe to Trump's "confusion."

On the other hand, there was nothing funny about Trump's statement that the U.S. should resume control of the Panama Canal. "Has anyone ever heard of the Panama Canal?" Trump asked the crowd at AmericaFest. "Because we're being ripped off at the Panama Canal like we're being ripped off everywhere else."

Trump explained that the Panama Canal "was given to Panama and to the people of Panama, but it has provisions, you gotta treat us fairly and they haven't treated us fairly."

"If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America in full, quickly, and without question."

Trump wasn't being funny about Greenland, either. "For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World," he wrote on December 22, "the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity."

This got the same reception that it got during Trump's first term. Greenland's Prime Minister Mute Egede said haughtily the next day that "Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland. We are not for sale and we will not be for sale." He doesn't seem to have mentioned that Greenland is not an independent state, but is Danish territory.

Even in floating the idea, however, along with his statements about the Panama Canal, Trump has become the most forthrightly expansionist president since William McKinley. Is this all about personal vainglory, as the left contends, or is there more substance to it? The answer is clear: Trump is once again being true to his America-First convictions.

His question to Trudeau was pointed, and remains unanswered: "So your country can't survive unless it's ripping off the U.S. to the tune of $100 billion?" Trump asked Trudeau this question when the Canadian prime minister complained that the tariff Trump threatened to levy if Canada continued to do nothing to control its long border with the U.S. would destroy Canada. That's where the Canada-as-the-51st-state gibe originated; it's really all about Trump protecting American interests.

With the Panama Canal, it's the same situation. Trump contends that we're not being treated fairly. Politico reported that he "also said he would not let the canal fall into the 'wrong hands,' warning of potential Chinese influence in Panama."

Regarding Greenland, it's once again the same story. Harvard International Review noted in an August 2024 article:

"While Greenland remains closely linked to Scandinavia as an autonomous region of Denmark, global powers such as the United States, China, and Russia are racing to extend military and economic influence in the region as it becomes more habitable."

There's the bottom line: if the United States doesn't control the Panama Canal and Greenland, China or Russia likely will, and the consequences could be severe both for the American economy and for national security. So while the leftist intelligentsia laughs at Trump's revival of the Manifest Destiny imperative, there is, as is so often the case, a method to his madness. Trump is playing the great power game at a time when the left wants nothing more than for America to stand down and let China be the world's great power. It's yet another reason why leftists hate him so passionately.

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 28 books, including many bestsellers such as The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad, The History of Jihad, and The Critical Qur'an. His latest book is Muhammad: A Critical Biography. Spencer has led seminars on Islam and jihad for the FBI, the United States Central Command, United States Army Command and General Staff College, the U.S. Army's Asymmetric Warfare Group, the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), the Justice Department's Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council and the U.S. intelligence community. He is a senior fellow with the Center for Security Policy. Follow him on X/Twitter here.

Reprinted by kind permission of the author and Jihad Watch.