Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Trump Again Calls to Buy Greenland After Eyeing Canada and the Panama Canal
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 4 weeks ago on
December 23, 2024

This screenshot from Donald Trump's Truth Social account shows am image of President-elect Donald Trump standing beside a Canadian flag. Trump’s recent summit with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and visit to Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral were not just exercises in negotiating trade policy and diplomacy. For Trump, they’ve also become fodder for trolling. (Truth Social via AP)

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — First it was Canada, then the Panama Canal. Now, Donald Trump again wants Greenland.

The president-elect is renewing unsuccessful calls he made during his first term for the U.S. to buy Greenland from Denmark, adding to the list of allied countries with which he’s picking fights even before taking office on Jan. 20.

In a Sunday announcement naming his ambassador to Denmark, Trump wrote that, “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”

Trump again having designs on Greenland comes after the president-elect suggested over the weekend that the U.S. could retake control of the Panama Canal if something isn’t done to ease rising shipping costs required for using the waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

He’s also been suggesting that Canada become the 51st U.S. state and referred to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “governor” of the “Great State of Canada.”

Greenland, the world’s largest island, sits between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. It is 80% covered by an ice sheet and is home to a large U.S. military base. It gained home rule from Denmark in 1979 and its head of government, Múte Bourup Egede, suggested that Trump’s latest calls for U.S. control would be as meaningless as those made in his first term.

“Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale,” he said in a statement. “We must not lose our years-long fight for freedom.”

Trump Canceled Visit to Denmark After Greenland Offer Was Rejected

Trump canceled a 2019 visit to Denmark after his offer to buy Greenland was rejected by Copenhagen, and ultimately came to nothing.

He also suggested Sunday that the U.S. is getting “ripped off” at the Panama Canal.

“If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America, in full, quickly and without question,” he said.

Panama President José Raúl Mulino responded in a video that “every square meter of the canal belongs to Panama and will continue to,” but Trump fired back on his social media site, “We’ll see about that!”

The president-elect also posted a picture of a U.S. flag planted in the canal zone under the phrase, “Welcome to the United States Canal!”

The United States built the canal in the early 1900s but relinquished control to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999, under a treaty signed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter.

The canal depends on reservoirs that were hit by 2023 droughts that forced it to substantially reduce the number of daily slots for crossing ships. With fewer ships, administrators also increased the fees that shippers are charged to reserve slots to use the canal.

The Greenland and Panama flareups followed Trump recently posting that “Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State” and offering an image of himself superimposed on a mountaintop surveying surrounding territory next to a Canadian flag.

Trudeau suggested that Trump was joking about annexing his country, but the pair met recently at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to discuss Trump’s threats to impose a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

Democrats’ Crisis of the Future: The Biggest States That Back Them Are Shrinking

DON'T MISS

Tech Founder Pledges to Give Away Half His Wealth to Make the American Dream More Possible

DON'T MISS

Let the Latest Scramble Begin for California School Construction Money

DON'T MISS

Americans Say It’s Harder to ‘Make It’ Financially Than Ever Before

DON'T MISS

Feeling’s Mutual: Rams Rookie Jared Verse Already Feeling Ire From Eagles Fans on Social Media

DON'T MISS

Ravens and Bills Lost Plenty of Talent Last Offseason, but Stayed in Super Bowl Contention

DON'T MISS

Mahomes and Kelce Help Chiefs to 23-14 Win Over Texans and Another AFC Title Game Trip

DON'T MISS

Governor Newsom Negotiates Mortgage Relief for LA Firestorm Victims

DON'T MISS

Fresno Women’s Celebration Host People’s March on January 18th

DON'T MISS

Homes Were Burning and Roads Already Jammed When Pacific Palisades Evacuation Order Came, AP Finds

UP NEXT

Tech Founder Pledges to Give Away Half His Wealth to Make the American Dream More Possible

UP NEXT

Let the Latest Scramble Begin for California School Construction Money

UP NEXT

Americans Say It’s Harder to ‘Make It’ Financially Than Ever Before

UP NEXT

Feeling’s Mutual: Rams Rookie Jared Verse Already Feeling Ire From Eagles Fans on Social Media

UP NEXT

Ravens and Bills Lost Plenty of Talent Last Offseason, but Stayed in Super Bowl Contention

UP NEXT

Mahomes and Kelce Help Chiefs to 23-14 Win Over Texans and Another AFC Title Game Trip

UP NEXT

Governor Newsom Negotiates Mortgage Relief for LA Firestorm Victims

UP NEXT

Fresno Women’s Celebration Host People’s March on January 18th

UP NEXT

Homes Were Burning and Roads Already Jammed When Pacific Palisades Evacuation Order Came, AP Finds

UP NEXT

On LA Fire Lines, Inmates Shoulder Heavy Packs and Tackle Dangerous Work for Less Than $30 a Day

Americans Say It’s Harder to ‘Make It’ Financially Than Ever Before

5 hours ago

Feeling’s Mutual: Rams Rookie Jared Verse Already Feeling Ire From Eagles Fans on Social Media

18 hours ago

Ravens and Bills Lost Plenty of Talent Last Offseason, but Stayed in Super Bowl Contention

18 hours ago

Mahomes and Kelce Help Chiefs to 23-14 Win Over Texans and Another AFC Title Game Trip

19 hours ago

Governor Newsom Negotiates Mortgage Relief for LA Firestorm Victims

19 hours ago

Fresno Women’s Celebration Host People’s March on January 18th

20 hours ago

Homes Were Burning and Roads Already Jammed When Pacific Palisades Evacuation Order Came, AP Finds

22 hours ago

On LA Fire Lines, Inmates Shoulder Heavy Packs and Tackle Dangerous Work for Less Than $30 a Day

1 day ago

Trump Says He ‘Most Likely’ Will Give TikTok a 90-Day Extension to Avoid US Ban

1 day ago

Maria Chiquita Proves Three Legs Are Just as Good as Four

1 day ago

Democrats’ Crisis of the Future: The Biggest States That Back Them Are Shrinking

WASHINGTON — Texas and Florida are growing rapidly. California, Illinois and New York are shrinking. With America’s population shiftin...

5 hours ago

5 hours ago

Democrats’ Crisis of the Future: The Biggest States That Back Them Are Shrinking

5 hours ago

Tech Founder Pledges to Give Away Half His Wealth to Make the American Dream More Possible

5 hours ago

Let the Latest Scramble Begin for California School Construction Money

5 hours ago

Americans Say It’s Harder to ‘Make It’ Financially Than Ever Before

18 hours ago

Feeling’s Mutual: Rams Rookie Jared Verse Already Feeling Ire From Eagles Fans on Social Media

18 hours ago

Ravens and Bills Lost Plenty of Talent Last Offseason, but Stayed in Super Bowl Contention

19 hours ago

Mahomes and Kelce Help Chiefs to 23-14 Win Over Texans and Another AFC Title Game Trip

FILE - California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a press conference in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)
19 hours ago

Governor Newsom Negotiates Mortgage Relief for LA Firestorm Victims

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend