President-elect Donald Trump refused to rule out using economic and military coercion to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland during a press conference Tuesday after devoting much of his impromptu speech to outlining his strategic goals in the Western Hemisphere.
In the first question of his post-speech press conference at Trump’s West Palm Beach, Florida, estate, a reporter asked Trump about his plans to secure American interests in Panama and Greenland, two countries he thinks are vital to America’s prosperity and security.
“Can you assure the world that as you try to get control of these areas you are not going to use military or economic coercion?” asked the reporter.
Trump swiftly replied, “No.”
“I can’t assure you—you’re talking about Panama and Greenland—no, I can’t assure you on either of those two, but I can say this: We need them for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military,” he said.
When asked again by the same reporter whether he would use the military to take control of them, Trump refused to make a commitment.
“I’m not going to commit to that,” he said. “It might be that you’ll have to do something. Look, the Panama Canal is vital to our country. It’s being operated by China—China! And we gave the Panama Canal to Panama. We didn’t give it to China.”
He said he was “strongly against” the U.S. having returned control of the canal to Panama to begin with.
Trump faulted one of his predecessors, the late President Jimmy Carter, adding, “Giving [away] the Panama Canal was why Jimmy Carter lost the election [in 1980], in my opinion … . Nobody wants to talk about the Panama Canal now, because it’s inappropriate, I guess, because it’s a bad part of the Carter legacy, but he was a good man.” Carter died Dec. 29 at age 100, and is set to lie in state from Tuesday night through Thursday at the Capitol.
Trump’s refusal to comment on whether or not he would use force to take Greenland and the Panama Canal plays into his larger philosophy of ambiguity on foreign policy matters.
Trump also declined to discuss whether or not he would refuse to defend NATO members who don’t pay their dues, keep troops in Syria, or sponsor Ukraine to join NATO.
Whether Trump’s stated ambitions to take possession of the Panama Canal and Greenland are negotiation tactics or serious policy remains to be seen, but serious talks appear to be underway with Greenland’s leadership.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr. arrived in Greenland on Monday—an autonomous territory of Denmark—after his father, the president-elect, had spoken at length about purchasing the island nation.
Denmark is taking the talks seriously. In an apparent slight to Trump, Denmark altered its coat of arms, enlarging a polar bear that represents Greenland.
While discussions of putting Greenland up for sale to the United States have received a rather chilly reception, Greenland Prime Minister Múte B. Egede said in his New Year’s speech, “Our cooperation with other countries, and our trade relations, cannot only continue to happen via Denmark.”
