Now that he is President Donald Trump again, there is still talk about immigration, cabinet confirmations and the economy.
But there are a myriad of questions about another focus of the president: What’s been dubbed his “Annexation Agenda.”
Trump, in the past, criticized U.S. military involvement in other countries, but he did a complete turnaround in recent weeks, pushing the idea that he wants to take over Greenland from Denmark, reclaim the Panama Canal and make Canada the 51st state.
And he didn’t rule out the use of military force to do so.
He’s also signed executive orders to rebrand the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America and to revert the name of North America’s tallest peak from Denali back to Mt. McKinley.
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Unless you have been living under a rock, you’ve heard that the “annexation” talk has not been met kindly by Panamanian, Danish or Canadian leaders. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s response was “not a snowball’s chance in hell.”
So why is Trump provoking longtime U.S. allies? What does he hope to gain domestically and globally by even suggesting the expansionist agenda?
Trump tried to buy Greenland when he was in the White House during his first term. He wants it for defense reasons. The school of thought is that Greenland is vulnerable to “bad actors” who are trying to increase their influence and gain a greater economic foothold.
Hmm, who might that be?? China!
And that’s what Trump is worried about. He wants to make sure he can counter China’s influence.
But Greenland is a self-governing country within the Kingdom of Denmark, and no Danish prime minister is going to give up Greenland in this day and age.
But what is the Trump administration after?
A Greenlandic government minister said she views Trump’s interest in the territory as positive and “a wakeup call for Copenhagen” after years of failing to adequately act on its demands for action on minerals and years of alleged abuses by the Danish state.
In fact, Greenland has apparently been interested in collaboration with both the European Union and the United States for many years, but it’s only now getting the attention it was seeking.
On to Panama. Trump for years made no secret of the fact that he didn’t think President Jimmy Carter should have returned control of the Panama Canal to the Panamanians.
His intention? He probably really doesn’t want the U.S. to regain control. What Trump may be doing in this case is using the threat as a negotiating tool.
This, again, has to do with the Chinese. He wants more favorable treatment for U.S. shipments and to keep the Chinese from encroaching on the Western Hemisphere.
And, if you look at history, he’s not the only one to make the canal an issue. It was a major talking point for President Ronald Reagan when he was governor of California.
In 1976 Reagan said, “We built it, we bought it, and we’re going to keep it.” Of course, we didn’t, and Reagan softened his rhetoric a bit a year later in 1977.
Other conservatives, like William F. Buckley Jr., rejected Reagan’s argument that turning over the Panama Canal compromised American regional interests.
“The United States, by signing these treaties, is better off militarily, is better off economically, and is better off spiritually,” Buckley said.
Interesting how almost 50 years later the same debate rages!
Now we turn the focus to our neighbors to the north.
Canadians will tell you Trump’s talk about making “The Land of the Midnight Sun” America’s 51st state just is NOT funny anymore.
“The joke is over,” said Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc. “It’s a way for him, I think, to sow confusion, to agitate people, to create chaos knowing this will never happen.”
At the root of all of this is the tariff threat which was really leveled to get Canada to increase border security. Trump threatened a sweeping 25% tariff on all Canadian products.
And Trump has been repeating a false claim that the U.S. has a trade deficit with Canada. The fact is that the United States has an overall trade surplus with Canada.
Trump initially threatened to impose tariffs on all Canadian goods if Canada and Mexico do not stem the flow of migrants and fentanyl from crossing the U.S. border — even though far fewer of each enter the U.S. from Canada than from Mexico.
By the way, Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $2.7 billion worth of goods and services cross the border each day.
And in a game of tit-for-tat, Canada says it will impose retaliatory tariffs on some American products if Trump goes through with his plan.
Trudeau is on his way out, and his take on all of this is quite interesting.
He says Trump’s rhetoric about merging the U.S. with Canada is distracting people from the costs Americans will face as a result of steep tariffs on Canadian goods.
Nancy Soderberg, a former United Nations ambassador and the director of the Public Service Leadership Program at UNF, joins me on Politics & Power this week to see if Trump is just trolling, poking the proverbial bear or trying to gain the upper hand with China?
Or if the president really has an expansionist agenda at all.
Watch our latest episode at 7 p.m. or 9 p.m. Tuesday on News4JAX+ or catch it anytime on demand, starting Wednesday morning, on News4JAX.com, News4JAX+ or our YouTube channel.