Donald Trump has threatened to invade Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal. On the week of the anniversary of the 2021 attempted coup by Trump supporters, their belligerent leader set forth a number of expansionist plots.
The Guardian reported:
In an hour-long press conference on Tuesday, Trump refused to rule out using military force to take the Panama canal and Greenland, and also suggested he intended to use “economic force” to make Canada part of the US.
Trump has explicitly said that military force isn’t off the table:
Jesus Christ. Donald Trump says he can’t assure the world he won’t use military force to take over Greenland or the Panama Canal.
Greenland is a territory owned by Denmark.
This is one of the dumbest and most dangerous things Trump has ever said.
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) January 7, 2025
When asked if he could assure the world that he wouldn’t use military and economic force to invade Greenland, Panama, and Canada he said:
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 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 and they’ve abused it. They’ve abused that gift. It should never have been made by the way – giving the Panama Canal is why Jimmy Carter lost the election in my opinion.
As is typical of Trump, his rambling answers often obscure more than they reveal. What is clear is that Trump appears to want to deploy military strength to invade Greenland and Canada. The BBC used the term “acquire” – Trump may have been able to argue that he wished to buy Greenland, but with this declaration of military intention, it would have to be nothing but an invasion.
Feathers rustled
Of course, Greenland is part of Denmark and the Danish foreign minister is caught between fending off Trump’s bizarre advances whilst balancing the potential for Greenland to become self-governing:
We fully recognise that Greenland has its own ambitions. If they materialise, Greenland will become independent, though hardly with an ambition to become a federal state in the United States.
Panama has asserted its own sovereignty, with Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha saying:
the only hands operating the canal are Panamanian and that is how it is going to stay.
Panama’s president José Raúl Mulino has previously reacted to Trump’s oft-repeated claims of China’s influence in Panama:
there are no Chinese soldiers in the canal, for the love of God.
Meanwhile, both Germany and France have expressed their objections to Trump’s advances. French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot said:
There is no question of the EU letting other nations in the world, whoever they may be, attack its sovereign borders.
Outgoing Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau was similarly abrupt:
There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.
Trump: isolationist where?
So, why does Trump want Greenland? As Al-Jazeera explained:
The US has expressed interest in expanding its military presence in Greenland by placing radars in the waters connecting Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom. These waters are a gateway for Russian and Chinese vessels, which Washington aims to track.
The island is also incredibly rich in minerals, including rare earth minerals used in the manufacture of batteries and high-tech industry.
Importantly:
Greenland does not carry out the extraction of oil and gas, and its mining sector is opposed by its Indigenous population.
The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs estimates that 88% of Greenland’s population are made up of indigenous peoples, the Kalaallit Nunaat. Similarly, Panama is also beset with the ever-reaching tendrils of colonialism, particularly given its status as a major port.
Here, then, we have a tale as old as the modern world as we know it: colonialism and imperialism. Trump has often been labelled an isolationist who wishes to protect US interests and no more. Politico have referred to his first term as president as having an “isolationist” approach, with several other commenters doing the same.
In fact, foreign policy specialist James L. Lindsay argued that Trump diverges from “traditional” isolationists with a trenchant concern for American gains:
Trump’s many complaints about NATO and the U.S.-South Korea alliance, for instance, aren’t based on the fear that they entangle the United States in the geopolitical affairs of other countries. His complaints are instead that those allies haven’t paid enough for the privilege of U.S. protection.
Whilst Trump’s typically bombastic statements make headlines around the world, it would be naive to assume that he has previously been an isolationist and is now an expansionist. He has consistently wanted to cement American interests at the direct cost of crushing others. After all, he wanted to buy Greenland back during his first term in 2019.
Business as usual
Journalist Ben Norton argued the same:
People need to stop claiming Donald Trump is an "isolationist". He's not an isolationist; he's an imperialist who wants to expand the US empire.
Trump is now threatening the potential use of military force to colonize Greenland and the Panama Canal. This is blatant colonialism. pic.twitter.com/Nx6dz1PpF5
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) January 8, 2025
One social media user drew a connection from Greenland to Gaza:
The US wants Greenland for the same reason it’s burning families alive in Gaza: to control, extract, exploit and dominate. This is plain old US imperialism, nothing more, and anything that bolsters the US Empire is and always will be a huge net loss for humanity.
— Tiberius (@ecomarxi) January 8, 2025
YouTube channel The Serfs pointed out the hypocrisy of conservatives who have long peddled the lie of American security:
November: We right wingers are actually anti-war and anti-interventionalist. We're just nationalists who want to focus on securing our borders.
January: WE MUST INVADE CANADA AND LIBERATE GREENLAND! MORE BLOOD FOR BLOOD KING!
— The Serfs (youtube.com/theserftimes) (@theserfstv) January 8, 2025
Journalist Emma Vigeland pointed out the strategic importance of Greenland for the US:
Greenland hosts one of the US's largest military bases, strategically important as it's the shortest route for missiles between the US and Russia, and contains 1/4 of the world’s rare earth elements, needed for EVs, batteries, etc.
"Anti-war" Trump is musing about imperialism.
— Emma Vigeland (@EmmaVigeland) January 8, 2025
The remarks from these commenters demonstrate that Trump is part of a long tradition of American presidents, and indeed Western leaders, who see geopolitics and the poaching of indigenous land and resources, as well as the destruction of indigenous communities, as a manifestation of “security.” The difference with Trump, however, is that he’s brash enough to say his intentions outright. If he really knew what he was doing, he’d go to the trouble of cloaking them respectably, just like Presidents before him have done.
What other reason would the likes of Obama, Clinton, and Bush have for their repeated attempts at ransacking the global south for resources?
Trump: the perfect American president
Activist Nina Turner pointed out the obvious:
Instead of trying to buy Greenland, which Denmark has repeatedly said is not for sale, maybe our elected officials could pass universal healthcare, which Americans overwhelmingly support.
Just a thought.
— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) January 7, 2025
But, here’s the thing. American security is never about free school meals for kids, or affordable – never mind free – healthcare, or anything like that. American security is built on a bombastic performance of defending their borders by threatening the borders of others. Did Bush’s invasion of Iraq make America any safer? Did Obama’s drones targeting Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan make America any safer?
It’s plain to see that, as ever, the liberal objections to Trump are objections of respectability rather than policy itself. Trump’s remarks are ridiculous, because the man himself is ridiculous. But, Greenland has long been a strategic goal of the US. Trump isn’t anti-war, he isn’t isolationist – he’s an American president, a nation that is fundamentally expansionist and colonialist.
Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Global News
