The United States of Amcanpancanalgreenland
Are Trump’s latest threats to seize control of Greenland, the Panama Canal, and even make Canada the 51st State of the United States, mere pronouncements or antics?
By Anil Madan
Donald Trump has a way of causing a stir. More than any President ever, he has a knack, a gift if you will, for seizing the moment to generate the news headline of the moment. The follow-on has the media, the average person, and indeed often his political opponents and world leaders talking about nothing about pretty much nothing other than his latest pronouncements or antics.
Trump’s latest threats. Pic – New York Post
So, are his latest threats to seize control of Greenland, the Panama Canal, and even make Canada the 51st State of the United States, mere pronouncements or antics? Or is there something of substance here?
As might be expected, commentary about the motives of a President who is often viewed as transactional in nature have ranged from speculation that he is merely negotiating, to ridiculing his remarks as nothing more than usual Trumpian nonsense on a par with his ephemeral pledge to have Mexico pay for his border wall, the building of the wall itself being another ephemeral promise.
Others have commented that Trump is merely trying to deflect attention from negative news as he tries to cruise smoothly to his inauguration. The New York judge who presided over the hush money trial in which Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records has scheduled sentencing for Friday, January 10. Trump wants to avoid that, and his attorneys have now petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States to intervene. His attorneys are also trying to prevent the release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on his alleged transgressions in connection with the January 6, 2020, assault on the US Capitol, and unlawful retention of classified documents.
And, in what surely seems a classic case of deflection, he has complained that by President Biden’s order, the American flag on all federal buildings will be flown at half-staff for a 30-day period as a show of respect for the late President Jimmy Carter. Trump wants the flag flown at full height during his inauguration which falls within the 30-day mourning span. It matters not that tradition calls for the 30-day half-staff period as a mark of respect to former presidents.
Trump’s latest seize-the-moment antics are a trifecta, comprising his bitter complaint that the Panama Canal is being run by Chinese soldiers, that the US should acquire Greenland, and that the Canada should become the 51st State because the US has a $200 billion trading deficit with Canada and pays altogether too much to provide a security umbrella for Canada’s defense.
Trump’s claims that the Chinese government and its soldiers are running the Panama Canal are untrue. The Wall Steet Journal reports that Hong-Kong based Hutchison Whampoa won the bidding for two of the leases and operates a terminal on each end. The other terminals are operated under long-term leases by PSA Singapore, Seattle-based SSA Marine which is a US company, and Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine. It may be that Trump has seen photographs or videos of uniformed workers that he has mistakenly concluded are Chinese soldiers.
Panama President Mulino called Trump’s accusations nonsense. In December he said: “There is absolutely no Chinese interference nor involvement in anything to do with the Panama Canal.” He has since added: “There is not a single Chinese soldier in the canal. For the love of God, you are free, the whole world is free, to visit the canal if you please.” The head of the Panama Canal Authority echoed these comments, and also dismissed Trump’s accusations that American shipping is gouged for transit fees through the canal’s locks: “Rules are rules and there are no exceptions,” he said. “We cannot discriminate for the Chinese, or the Americans, or anyone else. This will violate the neutrality treaty, international law and it will lead to chaos.”
The reactions of Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau and Panama’s President and Foreign Minister were as might be expected. Trudeau said bluntly: “there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.” President Mulino dismissively said that there is nothing to talk about and added: “The canal is Panamanian and belongs to Panamanians. There’s no possibility of opening any kind of conversation around this reality, which has cost the country blood, sweat and tears.”
Contrast this with comments regarding Denmark. On the one hand, Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede’s response was similar to Trudeau’s and Mulino’s. He has called for independence from Denmark, saying the island needs to free itself from its colonial past. The island was made a colony of Denmark in 1721 and became an autonomous dependent territory in 1953. Egede said: “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders. Our future and fight for independence is our business.”
On the other hand, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, while saying that Greenland is not for sale, did not dismiss Trump’s expression of interest in Greenland but seemed to endorse it. “On one hand, I am pleased regarding the rise in American interest in Greenland,” Frederiksen said in an interview Tuesday with Danish broadcaster TV 2. “But of course it is important that it takes place in a way where it is the Greenlanders’ decision, what their future holds.”Read More… Become a Subscriber
Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 10 January 2025
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