Original｜Odaily Planet Daily
Author: jk
On Tuesday, January 7, local time in the United States, Trump held a press conference at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. The press conference was initially promoted as an economic development announcement, revealing Dubai developer Damac Properties' plan to invest $20 billion in the construction of data centers in the United States. However, Trump then talked about several new issues related to US geopolitics. In this press conference that can be called "earth-shattering", Trump proposed new issues in four directions: increasing the military spending ratio of NATO member states, making Canada the 51st state of the United States, not giving up the military occupation of the Panama Canal and Greenland, and renaming the Gulf of Mexico "American Gulf".
Trump used to make a lot of political promises, but now that he has really become the "President-General" who can control both houses of Congress, the Supreme Court and the White House, who knows whether he will be determined to implement them and disrupt the geopolitics of North America?
Using economic means to "integrate Canada"
Source: Truth Social
On the day of the press conference, Trump posted a tweet on Truth Social, saying that many Canadians would like to become a new state of the United States, which would reduce fiscal deficits and tariffs, and reduce threats from Russia and China. When asked about the seriousness of this issue, Trump made it clear that he was "not kidding", suggesting that if Canada remained a sovereign country, the financial cost of its trade relationship with the United States could be devastating.
Trump also vowed to use "economic leverage" when asked if he would try to annex Canada, and called the two countries' shared border an "artificial line." But in fact, that border is the longest between countries in the world, established in treaties dating back to the founding of the United States in the late 1700s.
Trump said the United States spends billions of dollars a year to protect Canada and criticized imports of Canadian cars, lumber and dairy products. "They should be a state," he told reporters.
According to the BBC, outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau said there is "not a single possibility" of a merger between the two countries.
Earlier, Trudeau announced his resignation on Monday, saying he did not have enough support within the Liberal Party to lead the Liberal Party in this year's general election. Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, a potential competitor for Trudeau's successor, posted on social media that Canada "will never back down in the face of threats." Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party, the opposition to Trudeau's government, has said that Canada "will never" become a state of the United States.
No guarantee of non-use of force to control the Panama Canal and Greenland
During the press conference, Trump repeatedly mentioned the price the United States paid for building the canal and accused China of currently operating the canal. Later, multiple news media published fact checks to clarify that the operation of the canal has nothing to do with China. When asked if he might order the military to force Panama to abandon the canal or do the same with Greenland, he said: "No, I can't guarantee you either of those."
If force were used, it would violate treaties and other agreements reached during the Carter administration, whose judgment he has repeatedly criticized.
"We need them for economic security — the Panama Canal was built for our military purposes," Trump said, according to the New York Times. Asked again if he would rule out the use of military force, he said: "I'm not going to commit to that. It may take something."
After the meeting, the Panamanian president refuted Trump's statement, saying that "there is absolutely no Chinese interference in the canal."
Regarding Greenland, Trump believes that there are multiple Russian and Chinese ships operating around Greenland, so Greenland will be closely related to US national security and safe navigation. He said at a press conference that if Denmark does not hand over Greenland to the United States, he will "impose very high tariffs on Denmark" and questioned whether Denmark has legal sovereignty over Greenland.
At this time, Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. is visiting Greenland. Before arriving in the capital Nuuk, Trump Jr. said he would take a "personal day trip" to talk to locals and had no plans to meet with government officials.
The Danish Prime Minister immediately stated after the press conference that "Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people."
Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group said Trump's arguments bear similarities to those made by Putin to justify his invasion of Ukraine. His public message said, "American imperialism is back." It's hard to imagine a European saying that.
And Trump told reporters, "I'm talking about protecting the free world."
Ask NATO members to increase their share of military spending for U.S. troops stationed in the country
According to the New York Times, Trump claimed that NATO members have been slow to fulfill their promise to spend 2% of their gross domestic product on defense funding and should now prepare to spend 5%.
"They can all afford it, but they should be spending 5 percent, not 2 percent," Trump said, before again threatening not to protect any NATO ally if they, in his opinion, did not pay enough for the system.
Trump’s criticism of NATO continues a bipartisan narrative: George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Biden all raised the issue, with the most progress toward the 2 percent goal made during Biden’s presidency. Even some European leaders have privately said they agree the goal should be raised to 3 percent if Europe hopes to build enough military power to deter Russia in the coming decades. They often add that there is no political basis for reaching that level.
According to NATO's latest assessment, 23 of 32 allies are expected to reach the 2% (defense spending as a percentage of GDP) target by 2024, compared to only 3 in 2014. But now, Trump has made it clear that this level should be raised to 5%, otherwise he will threaten to withdraw troops.
Renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the "American Gulf"
Trump said the United States would change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the "American Gulf," linking the potential name change to his long-standing frustration with Mexico's mishandling of immigration, drug smuggling and trade, and making related comments.
"We are changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America," Trump said at a news conference. "... What a beautiful name, and it's very appropriate."
The Gulf of Mexico next to Florida, source: Google
This body of water has many names, but European explorers and cartographers have used the term "Gulf of Mexico" for at least 400 years.
While the U.S. federal government has existing mechanisms to rename recognized place names, even if the federal name is officially changed, that doesn't mean other countries will recognize the change.
Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene immediately said that day that she planned to pass congressional legislation to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico.
"I have directed my staff to immediately begin drafting legislation to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of the United States," Green wrote on social media. "This is important to begin funding the map changes for all agencies within the federal government, such as the FAA and the military."