President-elect Donald Trump’s press conference ahead of his inauguration was a lesson in future geography—or at least a preview of how he hopes to change the map of the United States.
Pressed by reporters on his plans for the American-built Panama Canal and Greenland, Trump did not rule out using military or economic force to acquire them.
“I can’t assure you on either of those two, but I can say this: We need them for economic security,” he said. “The Panama Canal was built for our military. I’m not going to commit to that now. It might be that you’ll have to do something.”
He discussed China’s influence over the canal, which was constructed by the United States and handed over to Panama by the late President Jimmy Carter.
“I thought it was a terrible thing to do,” Trump said of Carter’s decision to cede control.
Panama has moved closer to China through its 2017 decision to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. The management of canal ports by Hutchison Ports, a company based in Hong Kong, has also elicited concern from some in the United States.
Trump said national security was a critical motivation for buying Greenland from Denmark.
“You have China ships all over the place. You have Russian ships all over the place. We’re not letting that happen. We’re not letting it happen,” the president-elect told reporters.
Trump’s remarks on Greenland coincide with his son Donald Trump Jr.’s visit to the Danish overseas territory, which has a significant U.S. military presence. Trump Jr. and conservative activist Charlie Kirk spoke to locals, some of whom were clad in “Make America Great Again” caps.
At the press conference, Trump suggested the people of Greenland might vote to merge with the United States, saying he “would tariff Denmark at a very high level” if it opposed a change in ownership.
As for Canada, which he has previously proposed annexing, Trump said he was only considering the use of economic leverage to get control of the United States’ northern neighbor.
“Because Canada and the United States, that would really be something,” he said, adding that the move would also be “much better for national security.”
The president-elect also floated a name change for the marginal Atlantic sea currently known as the Gulf of Mexico.
“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 at a Tuesday press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“The Gulf of America—what a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) responded to the president-elect’s comments with an immediate pledge to introduce legislation “ASAP” to formally change the gulf’s name.
So far, leaders in Panama, Canada, and Denmark have bristled at Trump’s proposals.
The primary purpose of Tuesday’s press conference was to announce a $20 billion investment from Dubai-based DAMAC Properties to build U.S. data centers.
Other topics Trump discussed included his plans to issue “major pardons” for Jan. 6 defendants and a federal judge’s decision to block the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his investigation of Trump’s handling of classified documents.
“That’s great news,” Trump said when notified of the judge’s decision.
—Samantha Flom and Nathan Worcester
BOOKMARKS
The Georgia Republican Party voted to expel former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan on Jan. 6, accusing him of undermining the GOP. Duncan supported President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in their respective races against incoming President Donald Trump, and spoke at the Democratic National Convention last year.
The U.S. Department of Justice has settled a dispute revolving around accusations of racial discrimination perpetrated by Antioch Police Department officers of the San Francisco Bay Area. The city has agreed to hire a consultant to overhaul its code of conduct, and to train incoming officers on profiling, bias, and other racial issues.
Facebook parent company Meta has announced an end to its “fact-checking” program, introduced in 2016 following the election of Donald Trump. Joel Kaplan, an executive for the company, said the program was a good faith effort to reduce misinformation, but ended up “a tool to censor.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it is keeping an eye on an outbreak of human metapneumovirus (HMPV) in China. The virus, which causes respiratory illness, is not currently considered to be a threat in the United States.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says “there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” following recent comments from Donald Trump that he would like to annex the neighbor to the north. Although Trudeau resigned on Jan. 6 and is expected to leave office after a replacement is chosen, other Canadian politicians like Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre have echoed his sentiments.
—Stacy Robinson
