USA: Trump Doesn’t Rule Out Ssing Force to “Take Over” Greenland and Panama Canal

This is a verbal altercation between US President-elect Donald Trump (pictured) and officials from Greenland and Panama. A few days before his official inauguration at the White House, scheduled for January 20, the 47th president of the United States did not rule out the use of “military forces” for a possible seizure of the Panama Canal, as well as to establish U.S. control over Greenland, currently – formally – belonging to Denmark.

While one of his sons, Donald Trump Jr. is in Greenland on an officially private visit, the president-elect said at a news conference in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, that the United States needs Greenland for national security: “I’ve been saying this for a long time. There are 45,000 people living there, and it is not even known whether Denmark actually has sovereignty over Greenland, but if it does, it should give it up.”

There are no exact plans, but Trump’s statements have had an impact, with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen speaking out on the merits, saying only that “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders.”

Regarding ownership of the Panama Canal, Trump emphasized: “We need it for economic security. It was built for our military.” As leverage, Trump has not ruled out imposing draconian new duties on Panama and Denmark. And even on Canada: “We don’t need their products, and we have a huge trade deficit with both Canada and Europe. We could get rid of this artificially created border, and it would be much better for national security.”

Panama government’s reaction was not long in coming. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said the sovereignty of the Panama Canal is “non-negotiable” despite U.S. threats to annex the entity. For his part, the Foreign Minister of this Central American nation, Javier Martinez-Acha, reiterated that his government intends to cooperate and maintain excellent relations with various governments, including that of Washington. The sovereignty of the Panama Canal “is not negotiable, as President José Raúl Mulino has already stated,” the Panamanian minister emphasized. “I want to be clear. President-elect Trump’s opinion that a future occupant of the White House would have discussed a certain amount of money to purchase the Panamanian structure is not true, and no offer has been made to the government. Let it be clear that the canal belongs to the Panamanians and will continue to belong to them,” Martinez-Acha added.