Trump ramps up threats to gain control of Greenland and Panama Canal

President-elect Donald Trump is showing no sign of letting up in his desire for the US to acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal, calling both critical to American national safety.

Asked by a reporter if he would rule out using military or economic force in order to receive over the autonomous Danish territory or the Canal, he responded: “No, I can’t assure you on either of those two.

“But I can declare this, we require them for economic safety,” he told reporters during a wide-ranging information conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. It is not obvious how solemn he was in his remarks, or if it was some negotiating tactic.

Both Denmark and Panama have rejected any suggestion that they would provide up territory.

Trump also vowed to use “economic force” when asked if he would attempt to annex Canada and called their shared border an “artificially drawn line”.

The boundary is the globe’s longest between two countries and it was established in treaties dating back to the founding of the US in the late 1700s.

The president-elect said the US spends billions of dollars protecting Canada, and he criticised imports of Canadian cars, lumber and dairy products.

“They should be a state,” he told reporters.

But outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there isn’t “a snowball’s chance in hell” of the two countries merging.

The information conference was initially billed as an economic advancement announcement to unveil Dubai developer Damac Properties’ $20bn property to construct data centres in the US.

But the president-elect went on to criticise environmental regulations, the US election structure, the various legal cases against him, and President Joe Biden.

Among a variety of other things, he suggested renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” and restated his opposition to wind power, saying wind turbines are “driving the whales crazy”.

His remarks came as his son, Donald Trump Jr, was visiting Greenland.

Before arriving in the pool Nuuk, Trump Jr said he was going on a “personal day trip” to talk to people, and had no meetings planned with government officials.

• Trudeau says ‘not a snowball’s chance in hell’ Canada will join US
• Trump’s eyeing Greenland – but other Arctic property is frozen

When asked about Trump Jr’s visit to Greenland, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish TV that “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders” and that only the local population could determine their upcoming.

She agreed that “Greenland is not for sale”, but stressed Denmark needed close co-operation with the US, a Nato friend.

Greenland lies on the shortest route from North America to Europe and is home to a large American space facility. It also has some of the largest deposits of rare earth minerals, which are crucial in the manufacture of batteries and high-tech devices.

Trump suggested the island is crucial to military efforts to track Chinese and Russian ships, which he said are “all over the place”.

“I’m talking about protecting the free globe,” he told reporters.

Since winning re-election Trump has repeatedly returned to the concept of US territorial expansion – including taking back the Panama Canal.

During the information conference, Trump said the canal “is vital to our country” and claimed “it’s being operated by China”.

He previously accused Panama of overcharging US ships to use the waterway, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino has rejected Trump’s claims and said there is “absolutely no Chinese interference” in the canal.

A Hong Kong-based business, CK Hutchison Holdings, manages two ports at the canal’s entrances.

The canal was built in the early 1900s and the US maintained control over the canal zone until 1977, when treaties negotiated under President Jimmy Carter gradually ceded the land back to Panama.

“Giving the Panama Canal to Panama was a very large mistake,” Trump said. “Look, [Carter] was a excellent man… But that was a large mistake.”

It’s ambiguous how solemn the president-elect is about adding to the territory of the US, particularly when it comes to Canada, a country of 41 million people and the second-largest country by area in the globe.

During the information conference, Trump also repeated a number of falsehoods and odd conspiracy theories, including suggesting that Hezbollah, the Islamist militant throng, was involved in the US Capitol riot of 2021.