Trump team says Canada, Greenland, Panama comments are part of a broader plan

 In the past several weeks — and before he has been sworn in for his second term — President-elect Donald Trump has threatened trade wars with both of the United States’ closest neighbors, mused about taking over Greenland, blustered about bringing the Panama Canal back under American control and suggested making Canada the 51st state.

Less than a month before his inauguration, Trump — who vowed to end foreign wars and made “peace through strength” a rallying cry of his 2024 presidential campaign — is crafting an “America First” foreign policy defined by antagonism toward U.S. allies and adversaries alike, centered around dreams of territorial expansionism, and channeled through the president-elect’s braggadocio.

Trump’s pre-presidency tactics regarding Greenland, the Panama Canal and the United States’ closest neighbors aren’t likely to result in massive change. Canadians and their political leaders are unlikely to prove receptive to dissolving their country, and U.S. lawmakers have not broadly expressed willingness to absorb Canada as a new state. Greenland’s prime minister has said the island is not for sale, and Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino has said that “every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent zone belongs to Panama and will remain so.”

For any other modern president — especially one who campaigned on ending wars, not starting them — threatening to encroach on allies’ sovereignty would be extremely unusual. But U.S. foreign policy during Trump’s first term was marked by near-constant departures from diplomatic conventions and prior international commitments and defined by unpredictable and at times hostile political and economic brinkmanship with traditional partners and enemies across the globe. For Trump, training his imperial instincts on some of the United States’ closest partners advances a version of that same scattershot foreign policy he pursued during his first term, when he sought to forcefully promote American interests on the global stage with little regard for borders or delicate international relationships.

Trump’s team insists that his recent comments are part of a broader strategy.

An overarching mission of countering Russia and China is the common thread tying together Trump’s comments about Canada, Mexico, Greenland and Panama, a Trump transition official argued. Trump himself has not explicitly made that argument.

Earlier this month, Canadian officials announced a plan to increase spending on border security and use canine teams and artificial intelligence to intercept illegal drugs. The transition team has pointed to that announcement as an early indication of the success of Trump’s strategy.

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