Over the previous two days, President-elect Donald J. Trump has made clear that he has designs for American territorial enlargement, declaring that america has each safety considerations and industrial pursuits that may finest be addressed by bringing the Panama Canal and Greenland beneath American management or outright possession.
Mr. Trump’s tone has had not one of the trolling jocularity that surrounded his repeated ideas in current weeks that Canada ought to turn into America’s “51st state,” together with his social media references to the nation’s beleaguered prime minister as “Governor Justin Trudeau.”
As an alternative, whereas naming a brand new ambassador to Denmark — which controls Greenland’s overseas and protection affairs — Mr. Trump made clear on Sunday that his first-term provide to purchase the landmass might, within the coming time period, turn into a deal the Danes can not refuse.
He seems to covet Greenland each for its strategic location at a time when the melting of Arctic ice is opening new industrial and naval competitors and for its reserves of uncommon earth minerals wanted for superior expertise.
“For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media, “the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”
On Saturday night, he had accused Panama of price-gouging American ships traversing the canal, and recommended that except that modified, he would abandon the Jimmy Carter-era treaty that returned all management of the canal zone to Panama.
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