LAST UPDATE | 18 hrs ago
DONALD TRUMP HAS unveiled some of his foreign policy plans for when he returns to the White House next month, threatening a number of countries in the process.
The incoming US president announced he was planning to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” and refused to rule out using military force to seize Greenland and the Panama Canal.
The gulf is approximately 1,500 kilometres wide, surrounded from its north by US states, with Mexico to its west and Cuba to its south-east.
Returning to a topic of his first term, Trump further accused European countries of paying a “tiny fraction” for membership of Nato compared to the US. He said members need to boost their defense spending to five percent of GDP, underlining his long-standing claims that they are underpaying for protection.
“We have a thing called the ocean in between us, right? Why are we in for billions and billions of dollars more money than Europe?”
The declarations came as part of a meandering press conference held a day after the US Congress certified Trump’s election victory over the Democrats. It came on the fourth anniversary of the 2021 US Capitol attempted coup by a pro-Trump group of supporters.
The Republican billionaire had gathered reporters in southern Florida to announce a $20 billion Emirati investment in US technology but his remarks quickly became a rally-style rant as he returned at length to many of his campaign themes.
“Since we won the election, the whole perception of the whole world is different. People from other countries have called me. They said, ‘Thank you, thank you,’” Trump said as he set out his agenda for the coming four years.
The business tycoon repeated his criticism of the decision to allow local control of the Central American waterway by then-president Jimmy Carter, who died last month.
Built by the United States, the Panama Canal was handed to the Central American country a quarter-century ago and President Jose Raul Mulino has refused to entertain negotiations over its control.
Jingoism around its ownership helped Ronald Reagan to position himself as Carter’s key challenger, eventually defeating the Democrat to become president.
Speaking today, Trump said the canal remained “vital” to the US.
“It’s being operated by China — China! — and we gave the Panama Canal to Panama, we didn’t give it to China,” Trump said. “And they’ve abused it, they’ve abused that gift,” he claimed.
Trump has also ruffled European feathers with a separate territorial proposal – to buy Greenland, an island abutting the emerging Arctic geopolitical battleground that the former real estate developer sees as important to US security.
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, arrived on the island shortly before his father’s remarks for what was described as a personal visit, with no official meetings scheduled.
Denmark — which owns Greenland and says it is not for sale — is a US ally and a fellow member of NATO, another target of Trump’s ire as he demanded that nations in the western alliance boost their defense spending.
Trump further vowed to use economic force against Canada as he pursues his unlikely plan for the country to merge with the United States.
Asked if he would use military force to bring Canada to heel, Trump said: “No, economic force.”
He continued:
Canada and the United States, that would really be something. You get rid of that artificially drawn line and you take a look at what that looks like. And it would also be much better for national security.
It’s less clear whether Trump is intent on following through on the bombast. While he can’t force the world’s governments and other various organisations to rename the Gulf of Mexico, Trump may be able to direct US agencies to use Gulf of America.
But his comments have already drawn strong reaction from those countries he’s targetted.
Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau, who yesterday announced he would be soon be stepping aside after almost a decade in office, said there wasn’t a “snowball’s chance in hell” of Canada becoming part of the US.
There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) January 7, 2025
Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner.
Overall, Trump avoided as much emphasis on the difficulties the US will likely face with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
He did hammer outgoing president Joe Biden over the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and US foreign policy in Ukraine and Syria, repeating a familiar false claim that America “had no wars” in his first term.
“We defeated ISIS. We had no wars. Now I’m going into a world that’s burning with Russia and Ukraine and Israel,” Trump said.
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