“We need Greenland for national security purposes I’ve been told that for a long time long… People really don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up, because we need it for national security. That’s for the free world… You don’t even need binoculars, you look outside, you have China ships all over the place, you have Russian ships all over the place. We’re not letting that happen.”
That was President-elect Donald Trump at a Palm Beach, Fla. press conference on Jan. 7 articulating his desire to acquire Greenland from Denmark, bringing the icy wasteland under U.S. protection and countering China and Russia’s joint naval exercises and other activities in the region that Trump says endanger U.S. national security.
On Dec. 5, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Arctic and Global Resilience Iris Ferguson warned that the level of cooperation between China and Russia in the area was “unprecedented”: “The increasing levels of collaboration between Russia and the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and the unprecedented style of collaboration, especially in the military domain, give us again pause.”
Trump would not rule out the use of military force to extend a protectorate over Greenland as he took questions from reporters—similarly not ruling anything out as it related to Iran’s aggression in the Middle East, Hamas still holding U.S. hostages, dealing with drug cartels in Mexico and also in reasserting U.S. control over the Panama Canal, which was given up via a treaty in 1977 by then-President Jimmy Carter who recently passed away, with Panamanian control beginning in 2000.
At the press conference, Trump stated all options were on the table, stating, “I can’t assure you. You’re talking about Panama and Greenland, no, I can’t assure you on either of those two but… I can say this we need them for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military. I’m not going to commit to that now… It might be that you’ll have to do something.”
Trump added, “Look, the Panama Canal is vital to our country. It’s being operated by China. China! And we gave the Panama Canal to Panama, we didn’t give it to China and… they’ve abused that gift. It should have never been made, by the way, giving the Panama Canal is why Jimmy Carter lost the election, in my opinion…”
As for Canada, which Trump has spoken about making the 51st state in the U.S., Trump said there he was looking specifically to assert “economic force”: “No, economic force, because Canada and the United States — that would really be something — you get rid of that artificially drawn line and you take a look at what that looks like and it would also be much better for national security.
Trump added, “Don’t forget, we basically protect Canada but here’s the problem with Canada so many friends up there uh I love the Canadian people they’re great but we’re spending hundreds of billions a year to protect it, we’re spending hundreds of billions a year to take care of Canada… [that] we lose in trade deficits…”
Trump had previously promised to levy a 25 percent tariff on Mexico and Canada if they don’t secure their borders to prevent illegal aliens and fentanyl from crossing into the U.S., stating on Truth Social on Nov. 26, “ This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country! Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!”
That did result in immediate conversations with both Mexico and Canada, Trump reported, and importantly, concessions to do more to secure their respective borders.
On Nov. 27, Trump announced that he had already communicated with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, who has agreed to assist the U.S. in securing the border and stopping the flow of millions of illegal immigrants to the U.S. through Mexico: “Just had a wonderful conversation with the new President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo. She has agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border. We also talked about what can be done to stop the massive drug inflow into the United States, and also, U.S. consumption of these drugs. It was a very productive conversation!”
And on Nov. 30, Trump announced that he had a similar meeting, this time in-person, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has committed to help out on the border as well to fentanyl from flowing into the U.S.: “I just had a very productive meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, where we discussed many important topics that will require both Countries to work together to address, like the Fentanyl and Drug Crisis that has decimated so many lives as a result of Illegal Immigration, Fair Trade Deals that do not jeopardize American Workers, and the massive Trade Deficit the U.S. has with Canada. I made it very clear that the United States will no longer sit idly by as our Citizens become victims to the scourge of this Drug Epidemic, caused mainly by the Drug Cartels, and Fentanyl pouring in from China. Too much death and hardship! Prime Minister Trudeau has made a commitment to work with us to end this terrible devastation of U.S. Families. We also spoke about many other important topics like Energy, Trade, and the Arctic. All are vital issues that I will be addressing on my first days back in Office, and before.”
Both Mexico and Canada have a lot to lose by Trump’s threatened tariffs. For example, the trade in goods deficit with Mexico was $152.4 billion in 2023 ($322.7 billion of U.S. exports to Mexico, and $475.2 billion of imports), and in Canada, it was $64 billion ($354.3 billion in exports, and $418.6 billion in imports).
So, part of the talk about making Canada the 51st state — and also Trump proposed during the campaign using military force to crush the drug cartels in Mexico — could be viewed by the incoming president as leverage to be exerted against both countries to get the commitments necessary to protect the U.S. border, at least while he is in office.
But the broader discussion by Trump about both Greenland and the Panama Canal—key strategic locations bridging North America with the Arctic and Europe in the former, and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in the later, both from a naval perspective—appear to showcase Trump dusting off the so-called Monroe Doctrine, first articulated by President James Monroe in 1823 to discourage European influence in the Americas, blocking any further colonization of North and South America.
Then, Monroe told Congress in his State of the Union Address: “We… declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintained it… we could not view any interposition… by any European powers in any other light than as a manifestation of any unfriendly disposition toward the United States.”
This was later expanded by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, the so-called Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, to include the possibility of the use of military force by the U.S. to protect the Americas, telling Congress: “[I]n the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however, reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power… We would interfere with them only as a last resort and then only if it became evident that their inability or unwillingness to do justice at home and abroad had violated the rights of the United States or had invited foreign aggression to the detriment of the entire body of American nations.” Roosevelt immediately made good on the threat by intervening in the Dominican Republic in 1905, as he had already in Panama in 1903 by establishing a protectorate there, or predating Roosevelt’s, tenure, the protectorate over Cuba starting in 1898.
Later, U.S. actions to avert the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 as the Soviet Union parked nuclear missiles there or in Nicaragua in 1981 and Grenada in 1983 were further modern examples of various assertions of the Monroe Doctrine and against world powers who were threatening security in the Americas.
In this context, Trump’s attitude towards Greenland and the Panama Canal, but also towards Canada and Mexico — which all have invited or were unwilling to stop clear dangers from abroad from penetrating their shores — is a clearly a reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine and, by not ruling anything out including military force, of Roosevelt’s Corollary — a clear articulation of the credible threat of force — making the Trump Doctrine well within the mains of centuries of U.S. foreign policy.
This is the basis for peace through strength, which is to be so strong that nobody dares to attack you. Undoubtedly, this will also come into play as Trump once looks to modernize and expand the U.S. Navy and other military forces in appropriations by Congress to ensure that the U.S. has a robust capability to back up its words.
This realist approach has always been conducted on a reciprocal basis, as Monroe had originally asserted, in the tradition of George Washington’s Proclamation of Neutrality and his farewell address, of nonintervention in the affairs of the greater powers in Europe. In other words, it has always been a way of telling world powers, you don’t mess with us, we won’t mess with you.
Meaning, there is a lot to discuss by Trump with China, Russia and Europe over how recent developments in the Western Hemisphere are threatening U.S. national and economic security, just as those powers will wish to press their interests, for example in Ukraine, where Trump has vowed to broker a peace agreement.
Generally, as the U.S. asserts its sphere of influence, so too will the other powers. In China’s case, it has been dramatically expanding its spheres of influence into the Americas, Africa and elsewhere, which becomes increasingly dangerous at in inevitably crashes into our own spheres. Trump recognizes this, and so before even taking office, is laying down very broad markers. Every so often, American presidents have felt the need to make these declarations — sometimes exercised via force, sometimes via diplomacy — and to the extent they have backed them up, they ultimately have kept the peace, the President’s most important job.
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
