ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith has claimed Americans can “relate” to President-elect Donald Trump’s aggressive views on acquiring Greenland and making Canada America’s 51st state
Trump is “talking a bunch of smack and giving us a bunch of superlatives,” Smith said Tuesday on NewsNation. He argued Trump’s attacks make Americans think, “Now that’s normal, we can relate to that, that’s familiar to us.”
He noted: “This kind of language, no matter how frivolous we may think it is, no matter how much we may suspect that it’s much ado about nothing ... at least it sounds like a typical politician.”
Smith, a long-time sports journalist and host of ESPN’s First Take, revealed last month that he regrets voting for Vice President Kamala Harris in November and is reconsidering his former opposition to the president-elect.
Trump Tuesday threatened to use “economic force” to annex Canada.
Soon after winning the White House in November, Trump threatened to implement a 25 percent tariff on Canadian goods — a move experts say would harm consumers more than anyone else.
The president-elect is now considering declaring a national economic emergency in order to create the legal grounds to push forward tariffs against Canada and others, including China and Mexico, CNN reports.
Trump has also floated the idea of buying or otherwise taking over Greenland, an island home to 56,000 people, and taking control of the Panama Canal. He refused when pressed Monday during a press conference to rule out the possible use of military force in Greenland and Panama.
“For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last month.
The Danish government and local authorities have repeatedly insisted the island is not for sale — but Trump is still insistent, and has been since his first term in office.
“We are not for sale and will never be for sale,” Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede previously said.
Trump also also insisted he wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum fired back, telling Trump that Texas and California should revert to their former name: America Mexicana.
