THE WASHINGTON POST: Donald Trump’s expansionist designs prompt worried responses from foreign leaders

President-elect Donald Trump’s fixation on expanding the nation’s territory to include Greenland, the Panama Canal and Canada has foreign leaders weighing a familiar, but famously difficult, question: Should they take him seriously?

Many of them are trying.

Trump’s norm-shattering comments about his imperialist ambitions were at first widely perceived as a fantastical display of bravado, providing fodder for internet memes and late night talk shows. But as Trump continues to increase pressure on key allies, some world leaders appear ready to negotiate with a president-elect who considers himself a master dealmaker.

The question of how to respond to Trump dogged leaders during his first term in Washington, when he frequently tweeted foreign policy threats in 140 characters or less that did not come to fruition. But now he’s returning with a more organized staff and four years of experience on the global stage, amid greater global instability caused by wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Trump has been ratcheting up his comments about expanding U.S. territory for much of the last month. His advisers say his ambitions are part of a broader strategy to counter the rise of Russia and China in the West.

Some foreign leaders on the receiving end of Trump’s threats are attempting to hold onto their land but still find common ground with the incoming president, especially as members of his party line up behind him.

On Friday, the leaders of Denmark and Greenland said in a joint news conference that they’re prepared to start conversations with Trump about his interest in the arctic island, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark. Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede said he is open to greater cooperation with Washington, but he emphasized that the people of Greenland don’t want to be Danish or American.

Denmark has reportedly sent messages to Trump’s team expressing an openness to discuss improving security in Greenland or increasing the U.S. military presence there without annexing the island.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who last week announced plans to resign, told CNN that he believes the conversation about making Canada the 51st state is a negotiating tactic to distract from Trump’s threats to levy tariffs against Canada. Trudeau pointed to Canada’s commitments to increase spending on border security as evidence of the country’s willingness to address Trump’s concerns.

Trump’s annexation plans face obvious political and legal barriers. Trudeau said there wasn’t “a snowball’s chance in hell” that Canada would become part of the United States. Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre wrote on X, “Canada will never be the 51st state. Period.” Egede has said the future of the island should be determined by its people, and Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino has said that “every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent zone belongs to Panama and will remain so.”

Panama has held the hardest line. Panama’s Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha has said the sovereignty of the critical waterway is nonnegotiable, adding “the only hands operating the canal are Panamanian and that is how it is going to stay.”

But as world leaders scramble to respond, support is growing domestically for Trump’s proposals. The Trump War Room on X posted the front page of the New York Post, headlined, “The Donroe Doctrine,” with the Panama Canal renamed the “Panama-MAGA Canal.” And Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-South Dakota) introduced a bill featuring 15 Republican co-sponsors to buy back the Panama Canal.

The legislation was largely symbolic, with no funding attached, but it highlighted Trump’s grip on the GOP: A party that had lined up behind Trump’s “America First” policy agenda to end wars, not start them, was also willing to support his expansionist musings.

Alexander B. Gray, who served as chief of staff to the National Security Council in the first Trump White House, cautioned against dismissing Trump’s comments. He characterized them as the seeds of a “Trump doctrine.”

“This is the beginning of a coherent reorientation towards what he sees as the core interests of this country, which is the defense of the hemisphere from great power competition,” said Gray, who now works as a senior fellow in national security affairs for the American Foreign Policy Council. “Anyone who dismisses this as some sort of lark or vanity project is courting trouble.”

Gray noted that Trump views himself as a negotiator, and he often starts with a “maximalist” position.

In Washington, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was dismissive of questions on Trump’s calls to take over both Greenland and the Panama Canal and make Canada the 51st state.

“We remain focused on issues that we believe are core to our national security,” he said of the Biden administration, mentioning Ukraine, Gaza and China.

Trump began talking about his interest in annexing land from key U.S. allies in December. During a meandering news conference Tuesday, he refused to rule out the use of economic or military force to assume control of Greenland or the Panama Canal, a threat that shocked the diplomatic community. During remarks to reporters Thursday, he floated levying tariffs against Denmark if the country did not cooperate with his efforts to bring Greenland under U.S. control. He also mused about hockey legend Wayne Gretzky serving as governor of Canada if it became the 51st U.S. state, while blasting the country for not contributing enough funding to NATO defense.

Trump also suggested renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” although that idea met with derision from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who countered sarcastically with a proposal to change North America’s name to “América Mexicana.”

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California) defended Trump’s decision not to rule out the use of military or economic force amid national security threats from Russia and China, telling The Washington Post that any president would “want to reserve his ability to say we’re not going to tolerate it.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week gave short shrift to Trump’s threat to take over Greenland by military force.

“Why are we dwelling on this question?” Blinken responded to a media query during a visit to France. “It’s not going to happen, so let’s not waste time discussing it.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot dismissed the possibility of a military incursion in Greenland at a joint news conference with Blinken.

“That being said, are we entering a period of time where the false is present everywhere?” Barrot said. “The answer is yes.”

Yet even as his comments drew rebuke from other leaders, Trump’s allies doubled down.

On Sunday, vice president-elect JD Vance (R-Ohio) told Fox News that the U.S. must make sure that “Greenland is properly cared for, from an American security perspective.”

“And frankly, the current leadership, the Danish government, has not done a good enough job of securing Greenland,” Vance said. “I think there actually is a real opportunity here for us to take leadership to protect American security, to ensure that those incredible natural resources are developed and that’s what Donald Trump is good at. He’s good at making deals. And I think there’s a deal to be made in Greenland.”

Johnson, the South Dakota House Republican who introduced the Panama Canal bill, said in a statement: “China’s interest in and presence around the canal is a cause for concern.”

“America must project strength abroad - owning and operating the Panama Canal might be an important step towards a stronger America and a more secure globe,” he said.

On Thursday, several Republicans in Congress expressed support for Trump’s interest in taking back the canal, noting its strategic importance to the United States, and warning against China’s growing investments in the Canal region. The office of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) did not respond to a request for comment on whether the speaker will bring the bill to the floor.

Trump’s allies have also sought to gin up public support for a takeover of Greenland. The same day as Trump’s Mar-a-Lago news conference, his son Donald Trump Jr. and prominent pro-Trump activist Charlie Kirk visited the island. On Wednesday, Kirk shared a video with his 2.82 million YouTube subscribers titled, “I Went to Greenland and Learned Why We Need to Make It State 51.”

At 2 a.m. on Jan. 7, Kirk and Donald Trump Jr. boarded Trump’s personal plane in Palm Beach, Florida, and flew to Nuuk, Greenland. James Blair, Trump’s incoming deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs, and Sergio Gor, Trump’s pick for director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, also attended the trip, according to photos on social media.

After recounting his conversations with residents in MAGA hats, polar bear sightings and the natural beauty of the land, Kirk talked about why Greenland is strategically important to U.S. national security interests. There are immense natural resources on the island, he said, and the United States would be better positioned to develop them than Denmark.

“Acquiring Greenland would give America a sense of growing vitality,” Kirk said. “Greenland for the 21st century would not just be good. It is essential.”

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Karen DeYoung, Marianne Levine, Dan Lamothe and Michael Birnbaum contributed to this report.

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