President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday did not rule out using military or economic coercion to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland.
“Can you assure the world that as you try to get control of these areas, you are not going to use military or economic coercion?” a reporter asked the incoming president at an unrelated news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
“No,” Trump responded.
Reporter: “Can you tell us a little bit about what your plan is? Are you going to negotiate a new treaty?”
Trump: “No, I can’t assure you on either of those two. I can say this: We need them for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military.”
Trump in recent weeks has floated his desire for the United States to take back control of the canal and to take Greenland, a Danish territory, but his Tuesday comments suggest a much more aggressive and potentially illegal strategy. He argued that Denmark has no legal claim to Greenland.
