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Donald Trump makes fresh call for US to buy Greenland

23 Dec 2024 3 minute read
Donal Trump. Greenland image: NASA

President-elect Donald Trump has renewed unsuccessful calls he made during his first term for the US to buy Greenland from Denmark.

His call adds to the list of allied countries he is picking fights with even before taking office on January 20.

In an announcement naming his ambassador to Denmark, Mr Trump wrote: “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.”

“Greenland is ours”

Mr Trump’s designs on Greenland came after he suggested during the weekend that the US could retake control of the Panama Canal if something is not done to ease rising shipping costs required for using the waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.He has also been suggesting that Canada become the 51st US 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 US military base.

It gained home rule from Denmark in 1979 and its head of government, Mute Bourup Egede, suggested that Mr Trump’s latest calls for US 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.”

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

Panama Canal

He also suggested on Sunday that the US 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 Jose Raul Mulino responded in a video that “every square metre of the canal belongs to Panama and will continue to”, but Mr Trump fired back on his social media site: “We’ll see about that!”

The president-elect also posted a picture of a US 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 December 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 flare-ups followed Mr 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.

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


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Jeff
Jeff
1 month ago

Yeah, spat with Panama probably cos he is accused of tax evasion there (quite serious charges). But the guy is unhinged. Just look at his picks for government. If you go there for hols, make sure you have serious medical cover and repatriation cover. It likely to get unsafe very quick. RFK will make sure of that.

A.Redman
A.Redman
1 month ago

MAGA fruit loop mk 2

Richard Jenkins
Richard Jenkins
1 month ago

Looks more & more like we are heading for disaster with this stupid man! The 1000 yr Reich ?
It’s frightening that Musc is now targeting the U.K.! People must reject reform on every level!

Rob
Rob
30 days ago

The majority of Americans voted for this idiot.

Jeff
Jeff
30 days ago
Reply to  Rob

No, they didn’t, that is what trump wants you to think. 77-75 million +/- a few (T-H) with 90 million give or take not voting.

Richard Davies
Richard Davies
30 days ago

The only thing needed for the cess-pit, aka the usa, is a gong-farmer and there is no-one else more qualified for that role than the fart-in-chief aka trump!

S Duggan
S Duggan
30 days ago

We are heading for some very choppy waters. Trump has a screw loose. All we can do here is make sure Trump’s stooge Farage gets as few votes as possible in 2026.

Jeff
Jeff
30 days ago

And the orange oaf now wants to change a mountain name back after Obama changed it to an Alaskan Native name. He really hates Obama.

jimmy
jimmy
30 days ago

Are we to expect three more US sponsored ‘color revolutions’ in 2025 ? They are well practiced at it in recent years !

Martyn Vaughan
Martyn Vaughan
30 days ago

One should never believe that these comments are jokes. Trump is a megalomaniac who believes the USA should eventually absorb the entire world. It is only a matterof time before the UK is considered fair game. Given the way that Right-Wingers idolise the country of private health care and endless school-shootings and despise the social democracies of Europe, such a move is inevitable.

Rob
Rob
28 days ago

We should also add Mexico to Trump’s hit list. Republicans want to invade it to combat the drug cartels. The question is how would the rest of the Western world react were he to carry out his threats?
Putin would feel vindicated, because its near impossible to sanction or boycott the US like we are with Russia without putting strains on you own economy.
So much for Trump being the anti-war President.

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