President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that he won’t rule out using military and economic force to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, while also raising the possibility of annexing Canada.
During a winding hour-long press conference, a reporter asked the president-elect whether he would rule out using force to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, which is part of Denmark. Trump responded: “No.”
“I can’t assure you. You’re talking about Panama and Greenland. No, I can't assure you on either of those two but I can say this, we need them for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military,” Trump said. “Look the Panama Canal is vital to our country. It’s being operated by China, China.”
Under a 1978 treaty, the U.S. ceded control of the Panama Canal to the government of Panama. It is now operated by an independent Panamanian government agency.
At another point in his remarks, the president indicated that he would also not rule out using economic force to coerce some sort of annexation of Canada, encouraging reporters to see the border as an “artificially drawn line.”
“Economic force, because 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,” Trump said.
Trump also suggested that the United States should begin referring to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” He has in the past also praised the prospect of unilaterally attacking drug cartels Mexico.
