Donald Trump: Advisor reveals why he is threatening Panama and Canada

The USA certainly has experience in acquiring islands: from Guam and American Samoa in the Pacific, to Puerto Rico in the Caribbean, to Hawaii – all of these spots in the world’s oceans are in the wake of the US victory over Spain around 120 years ago came into possession of Washington. Others, such as the Caribbean Virgin Islands, were bought by the United States government from Denmark. , the Americans had previously vied for 50 years over the group of islands then called the Danish West Indies.

Did Donald Trump have the reward for his predecessors’ perseverance in mind when he once again expressed interest in Greenland? Also part of Denmark and for the second time after 2019? Unclear. Unlike five years ago, however, he did not make a purchase offer, but spoke much more harshly about the “absolute necessity” of “owning and controlling” the largest island in the world.

As is so often the case, the future US President left it unclear what would follow from this claim and how and whether he would actually want to implement it. However, he reiterated it in a series of social media posts that he made over Christmas.

The governments in largely independent Greenland as well as those in Copenhagen responded to the unfriendly words with: more military. The Danes want to spend 1.3 billion euros on expanding Greenland’s defense. It was an “irony of fate” that the two announcements happened one after the other, it was said from the Danish capital.

Greenland is not the only area Trump has set his sights on. He also wants to get the Panama Canal under his wing (again). Reason: The transit fees are far too high, and Chinese soldiers are “lovingly but illegally operating” the Panama Canal. This is what the former and future US president claimed on his “Truth Social” network. “The canal is Panamanian and belongs to Panamanians. There is no way to start any conversation about this fact, which has cost the country blood, sweat and tears,” it said dryly from the capital.

And then there is Canada. Many Americans view their northern neighbor with a mixture of disdain and envy. Many things are much better there than in the USA, such as the healthcare system, but Canada usually performs modestly, which is not necessarily seen as a strength in the USA. Trump doesn’t take Canada seriously either – and declared on Christmas Day that the country should become the 51st US state so that it could benefit from lower taxes. Trump disparagingly (and not for the first time) called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was struggling domestically, “governor.”

Why all this? Donald Trump already mastered the discipline of threatening, snubbing and insulting allies and neighbors very well in his first term in office. In some cases he was even successful. Such as adhering to the two percent target for NATO defense spending, which he has formally forced countries like Germany to adhere to. But now his tone has become even sharper.

What motivates the 45th and 47th Presidents of the United States to do this? Is it a never-ending desire for headlines? A new longing for great power, like the one that drives Russia and, to some extent, China? The desire for disruption, chaos and irritation? Or just thoughtless threatening gestures?

Presumably a bit of everything, as Trump’s less stringent selection of his ministers suggests. His designated Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is someone who supports alliances like NATO, while the future president is openly flirting with leaving the alliance. His special envoy to Ukraine wants to continue equipping the attacked country, while Trump announces “peace within 24 hours.”

His long-term advisor Corey Lewandowski has now revealed how the government team understands their boss’s irritating statements: as tactical sophistication. “He is a president who is making unexpected announcements to make it clear to the world that the United States is once again the dominant world power. We have a president who will neither bow to his foreign friends nor his foreign opponents,” said Lewandowski in the Trump-friendly US broadcaster Newsmax.

Asked specifically about the statements about Greenland and Panama, Lewandowski said the addressee was actually China. “Trump is talking about how, from a historical perspective, Greenland might become part of the United States and that he will take back the Panama Canal so that China no longer has influence there.”

The new power of China has already concerned many US presidents, not just Donald Trump. But he is escalating the rivalry with the Middle Kingdom with the help of higher punitive tariffs. At the same time, however, he wants to withdraw from international cooperation and thus create space for autocratic regimes such as China or Russia. Which he would then like to push back with interventionist tendencies like now in Panama and Greenland. The next four years are likely to be full of such misleading Trump tactics.