The world according to Trump | The Press

Renaming the Gulf of Mexico, annexing Greenland, the Panama Canal, Canada… Donald Trump outlined his borderless ambitions on Tuesday during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, his residence in Florida.

Greenland

This is not the first time that the American president-elect has taken an interest in Greenland. During his first term, he repeatedly stated that he wanted to buy the island. But he went further on Tuesday by refusing to rule out the possibility of having use of the army to annex the autonomous Danish territory. The same day, his son Donald Trump Jr. began a private tour of the island, which is home to a U.S. military base. “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders,” replied Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

Panama Canal

Last month, Donald Trump accused Panama of “ripping off” the United States by charging it “ridiculous” fees to use its canal. Questioned on this subject on Tuesday, the president-elect refused to assure that he would not use force to regain control of this waterway. A threat to be taken seriously? Researcher at the Raoul-Dandurand Chair in strategic and diplomatic studies, Julien Tourreille has doubts. “If he really thinks so, we would be in the same logic as Vladimir Putin who believes that invading Ukraine is legitimate. It would still be a big break with the international order that the Americans have built,” he maintains.

Gulf of Mexico

Upon his return to the White House, Donald Trump would rename the Gulf of Mexico… “Gulf of America”. That’s what the Republican said Tuesday, saying his administration would make the official announcement “at a fairly near future date.” If it were to materialize, this name change would be a symbolic attack against Mexico, which must “stop allowing millions of people to flood into our country,” warned the president-elect. According to Julien Tourreille, this type of threat aims above all to “put pressure”. “When Donald Trump comes out with completely extravagant things, we have to talk about it,” explains the specialist.

I’LL TAKE

The American billionaire demanded that NATO countries increase their military spending to 5% of their GDP. “They can all afford it,” said Donald Trump. The problem? Even the United States, which is among the member countries spending the most money on defense, is not meeting this target. Currently, their military spending represents 3.38% of their GDP. During the election campaign, Trump threatened to no longer guarantee the protection of NATO countries against Russia if they did not allocate a sufficient budget to their defense. The objective of Alliance members is 2% and Canada does not meet this threshold.

Canada

Once again, Donald Trump has raised the idea of ​​annexing Canada, threatening to use “economic force” to achieve it. For several weeks, the Republican leader has published messages on social networks in which he expresses his intention to make Canada the 51st^e American state. “If you get rid of that artificially drawn line and look at what it looks like, it would actually be much better for national security. Remember, we are essentially protecting Canada,” he told the press, prompting a firm response from Justin Trudeau. “Never, ever, will Canada be part of the United States,” retorted the Prime Minister.