The president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, under Danish sovereignty, to convert it into US territory, or to regain control of the Panama Canal. And he does not rule out resorting to military or economic pressure to achieve this. In a press conference at his Florida mansion, Mar-a-Lago, the Republican assured that the United States needs both territories to guarantee its economic security.
Asked if once he returns to the White House, on January 20, he will avoid using military or economic pressure on Panama and Greenland, Trump replied: “No, I can’t reassure you about either of them. But I can say this: we need them for economic security.”
The president-elect has also attacked Canada and has repeated his opinion that the northern neighbor should be a State of the United States. “The border is a completely arbitrary line,” he noted. He has also expressed his belief that Canada benefits from purchases of its products and military protection by the United States without Washington receiving anything in return. Canada is one of the NATO countries that does not meet the goal of allocating 2% of its GDP to Defense; In his speech, Trump said that Alliance members should dedicate at least 5% of their GDP to military spending.
In a first reaction, the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, Melanie Joly, has declared on the social network “a step back from threats.” Also in “Workers and communities in our two countries benefit from each other from the greater trade and security alliance.”
In an interview on the Danish television network TV2, the Prime Minister of that country, Mette Frederiksen, expressed her doubts that “things are going to reach that point.” Regarding the possibility that the new Administration is going to impose tariffs against Denmark as a pressure measure, he replied that “in the world we live in I firmly recommend more cooperation between allies, and not the opposite.”
The president-elect’s statement comes this Tuesday, the same day that his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, landed in Greenland, on a trip that encourages speculation about the . This same Monday, Donald Trump, who has raised the idea repeatedly, promoted it again on the internet: “Greenland is a wonderful place and its inhabitants will benefit greatly if, and when, they become part of our nation,” he wrote on his networks. social.
Since his victory in the November elections, the future president of the United States has flirted in comments on social networks and in public statements not only with the proposal to buy Greenland, a territory of enormous natural wealth and with a key strategic location to respond to the ambitions of Russia and China in the Arctic, and whose acquisition he first raised during his previous mandate, in 2019. He has also put on the table the possibility of whether China continues to advance its presence in Latin America. From the Central American country they responded this Tuesday, recalling that the interoceanic waterway is “an irreversible conquest.” “I reiterate what President José Raúl Mulino has already said: the sovereignty of our canal is not negotiable,” emphasized Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha.
When he proposed taking Greenland in 2019, Trump received a flat rejection from Frederiksen, who called the proposal “absurd.” The American president reacted by canceling the state visit he had planned to the Nordic country.
So, that proposal sounded crazy. Now, given his insistence, the almost absolute power that he will have during his term – he will have the support of both chambers of Congress, controlled by the Republican Party, and the most conservative Supreme Court in decades – and, it is beginning to seem that way. less.
Danish state radio reported that Trump Jr. landed this Tuesday in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, aboard his father’s plane. Trump Onefor a stay of just a few hours. He has uploaded images of his arrival to the island in two comments on X (formerly Twitter), in which he praises the “beauty” of the territory. “Greenland is approaching warm… well, actually, really, really cold!” he wrote.
The businessman and informal advisor to his father had announced his visit this Monday in a podcast on the Rumble platform, although he clarified that his one-day trip, in which he is accompanied by the prominent pro-Trump activist Charlie Kirk, was purely “personal.” ” and as a “tourist.” The autonomous Government of Greenland has also insisted on this, indicating that the trip is that of “a private individual” and is not of an official nature. Therefore, there will be no meetings between the island’s authorities and the president-elect’s son.
Upon her arrival in Greenland, a territory equivalent to four times the size of Spain, the Danish Prime Minister stressed that the island is not for sale, although she acknowledged that it is possible that the autonomous territory could seek independence in the future. In any case, he insisted, the future of Greenland will depend on its residents. “My starting point and the Government’s starting point are very clear: that the future of Greenland is decided in Greenland,” he stressed.
“We need very, very close cooperation with the United States. At the same time, I would also like everyone to respect that Greenlanders are a people. “It is their territory that is at stake,” declared the head of Government.
In a statement on Monday after the visit was announced, Greenlandic Foreign Minister Mininnguaq Kleist declared that “Greenland is an open country and welcomes visitors.”
Greenland was a colony administered by Denmark from the 18th century until 1953, when it became an autonomous territory. Tensions between Copenhagen and Nuuk have increased in recent times, amid complaints from the island’s residents of the central government’s lack of consideration for their needs.
King Frederick represented by a goat—in an apparent response to Trump’s proposals.
In his comment on his Truth social network on Monday, the president-elect confirmed that his eldest son and “several representatives” would travel to Greenland this Tuesday to “visit some of its most magnificent areas and views.” “We will protect it, and we will promote it, against a very evil outside world,” Trump has promised in the event that the island remains under US sovereignty.
