The real reason Trump is pushing for acquiring Greenland: analysis

Travis Gettys
09 January
Donald Trump attends the America First Policy Institute gala at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., November 14, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

Panelists on "CNN This Morning" tried to make sense of Donald Trump's imperialist threats against Canada, Greenland and Panama.

The president-elect refused to rule out military or economic actions to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, which he has mused about doing since his Nov. 5 re-election, and he has suggested a merger between Canada and the U.S., saying that all of those territorial expansions would be necessary for national security.

"What Donald Trump is trying to argue is that there are many other conflicts around the world where it's not in our interest to be involved," said Republican strategist Kristen Soltis Anderson. "We've gotten too overextended, [Trump says] but this is in our interest. This is in our hemisphere, this is something that is important for us to do, and in a way, I think the reason why you see Donald Trump so animated about all of this is I think he views it as a really big real estate transaction. What does Donald Trump do? Big real estate transactions, branding – the Gulf of America. I mean, this is this is just Donald Trump taking the same playbook he's been running for decades and now trying to apply it to the U.S. government yet again."

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CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams agreed that Trump wasn't fully serious about his imperialist ambitions, but he cautioned against dismissing his comments altogether.

"We were here four years ago where the former president, president-elect will make these claims that in many ways are kind of preposterous, but there's an element of truth to them," Williams said. "Like, yes, we technically could under the laws of the military annex another nation if we so chose. But here we are once again, assessing the seriousness of these kind of harebrained, almost schemes being cooked up by the former president. That could be the future of America, but it's hard to know where we go from here."

Susan Wild, who lost her re-election bid to the U.S. House in November, pointed out that Greenland was an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark – which was a co-founding nation of NATO.

"Keep in mind, he didn't rule out the idea of using military power," said Wild, a Democrat who served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "Invading Greenland would mean invading a NATO country, and under Section 5 of the NATO treaty, all NATO countries have an obligation to come to the defense of any of their allies. I mean, it's just preposterous that we would ever be able to do that by way of some sort of if we actually invade, if we actually invade Greenland."

Anderson circled back and admitted that Trump might actually be serious about invading those allies he has threatened, but she reiterated her earlier point.

"Have me back on the show, show me this clip of me saying we're not going to invade Greenland, and you can tell me I'm dumb," Anderson said. "You can tell me I'm foolish. We're not going to invade Greenland, but I think to the extent that Donald Trump thinks of this as like a real estate deal, he says things like all options are on the table because he's trying to have the strongest negotiating posture. It may be ridiculous. We're in for four more years of it, but this is totally in line with how Donald Trump works."

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