Trump proposes using military or economic force to take Greenland and the Panama Canal

President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday refused to rule out using military or economic coercion to force Panama to give up control of the canal the United States built more than a century ago. and force Denmark to sell Greenland to the United States.

In an hour-long press conference at his Florida estate,

Trump also reiterated his threat that “all hell will break loose in the Middle East” if hostages held by Hamas are not released before Inauguration Day, repeating the threat four times.

“If they are not back when I take office, all hell will break loose in the Middle East,” he told reporters. “And it won’t be good for Hamas and, frankly, it won’t be good for anyone. All hell will break out. I don’t have to say more, but that’s what it is.”

Trump did not elaborate during the press conference, where he presented a hodgepodge of grievances, grievances and false claims, from the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal to offshore drilling to the criminal cases against him and the size of his electoral victory.

He refused to rule out using military force to retake the Panama Canal, which was returned to Panama in a treaty in the late 1990s, and acquire Greenland, which Trump said was necessary for U.S. national security. Joined.

“Maybe you have to do something,” he said.

Trump’s desire to expand the American footprint is entirely in line with his mentality of making everything he controls as big as possible, dating back to his string of acquisitions in the late 1980s. In recent days, Trump has spoken repeatedly to buy Greenland and seize the Panama Canal.

It was unclear how serious the president-elect was about some of his comments during the news conference. At one point, he suggested that his administration would rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

The news conference was a back-to-the-future moment for Trump, who often used similar appearances as president to seize control of the public narrative with attacks on his adversaries and grandiose and often false claims about his accomplishments.

In an appearance before reporters that had been described as an economic development announcement, Trump lashed out at President Biden for banning oil drilling in some waters, said the special counsel who investigated him is “unhinged” and attacked the U.S. judge. New York. overseeing a criminal case against him.

“That’s a sick group of people, and it was all to influence the election,” Trump said. “It was all a fight against his political opponent. We’ve never had that in this country. We’ve had that in certain countries. “We have had that in third-level countries.”

Before answering questions, Trump spoke for more than half an hour without focusing on any particular topic. He ranted about Biden’s focus on electric cars, saying, “I don’t know what’s going on with electricity. “This guy loves electricity.” And complained about shower heads with restricted water flow.

“It’s called rain, it comes down from the sky. And they want to do it, no water comes out of the shower,” he said. “This drips, drips, drips. So what happens if you’re in the shower 10 times longer? “There is no water coming out of the tap.”

He also returned to one of his favorite targets: his hatred of windmills.

“The windmills are driving the whales crazy,” he said.

The president-elect spoke extensively about foreign policy and criticized Biden’s handling of the war in Ukraine, the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the conflict in Israel. He also reiterated his threat not to protect NATO allies, a key part of the pact, if they did not increase the amount of money they spend on the defense of their own countries.

At one point, he appeared to confirm a recent story in the Financial Times that suggested he wanted NATO countries to commit to spending up to 5 percent of their economic output on defense, a significant increase.

He also criticized Canada, saying that the country should be a state of the United States because of the economic support that the United States provides to it. He said he would not use military power to achieve that, but said he would use economic power to pressure the American neighbor.

“Why do we support a country with more than 200 million a year?” he told reporters and then referred to the country’s prime minister. “Our military is at your disposal, all these other things. They should be a state. “That’s what I told Trudeau when he came down.”

Trump threatened to use “economic force” to bring Canada and the United States together, implying that the United States would reduce its purchases of Canadian products.

He also said he would “impose a very high tariff on Denmark” if it does not hand over Greenland to the United States.

During the press conference, Trump was told that a federal judge had blocked Jack Smith, the special counsel who had been investigating his actions on January 6 and his handling of classified documents, from releasing a report on the investigations.

“So if they are not allowed to issue the report, that is how it should be,” he said. “Why should you be allowed to write a false report? It will just be a false report. “That is great news.”