What’s real about Trump’s plans?

The president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, has threatened in recent days the territorial sovereignty of Panama, Mexico, Canada and Greenland –an autonomous territory of Denmark–.

However, although it is still early to know if it is a distraction maneuver or has real intentionsit is possible to investigate the reason for these ambitions… or whims.

On January 20, the Republican will take office with his old promise to make “America great again” (“Make America Great Again”), which could put Washington’s relationship with several of its allies on the ropes. Something that, in fact, already happened during his first term between 2017 and 2021.

Crisis over the Panama Canal

A few days ago, Trump generated a huge stir by announcing, both on social networks and in a speech in Arizona, that will seek to regain American control of the Panama Canal if the rates charged to United States commerce to transit the waterway are not reduced.

Then he announced that he will nominate as ambassador to Panama Kevin Marino Cabreracurrent commissioner of Miami-Dale County, and insisted that the Central American country is “swindling” to the United States. The threat has collided with the frontal rejection of the Panamanian president, José Raúl Mulino, who said that the sovereignty of the transoceanic canal It is non-negotiable and received the support of several Latin American leaders.

The Panama Canal was built by the United States, which inaugurated it in 1914 and administered it until its transfer to the Panamanian State on December 31, 1999, as established in the Torrijos-Carter Treaties signed on September 7, 1977 in Washington by the then Panamanian presidents Omar Torrijos (1929-1981) and American presidents Jimmy Carter (1977-1981).

When Mulino responded in an institutional video that the intra-oceanic route will continue to be Panamanian, the Republican He didn’t take long to mock on social media: “We’ll see,” said Trump, who posted an illustration of the channel with an American flag.

During the New York magnate’s first term, it was not always clear whether his rhetoric, often incendiaryhid real intentions or if, on the other hand, it was a distraction maneuver or a form of pressure to force some type of negotiation.

Intervention against Mexican cartels?

Also recently, Trump raised eyebrows by announcing that upon his return to the White House he will “immediately” appoint drug trafficking cartels as terrorist organizations.

The president-elect did not give more details on the matter, but the hard wing of the Republican Party has long fantasized about the idea of ​​classifying drug traffickers as terrorists to have a pretext to intervene militarily in Mexican territory and destroy fentanyl laboratories.

For the Government of Mexico that is an impassable red line and its president, Claudia Sheinbaum, warned that the Latin American country “will never be subordinated” and “does not accept interference.”

Everything seems to indicate that this is an issue that will mark the relationship between Trump and Sheinbaumin addition to the threat of tariffs that the Republican launched against Mexico and Canada if these countries do not reduce the trafficking of migrants and drugs to the United States.

Annex Canada and buy Greenland

Specifically, regarding Canada, Trump has been joking for several weeks with the idea of ​​annexing its neighbor as the 51st state of the United States and mocks his Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, whom he calls “governor.”

Greenland has also been added to the list of aggrieved parties, since when announcing its ambassador to Denmark, the Republican declared that “ownership and control” of the island is “an absolute necessity” for American national security.

Trump had already expressed during his first term the idea of ​​buying Greenland, a territory that shares its sovereignty with Denmark, and both the Greenlandic and Danish authorities did not take long this week in expressing his repudiation for that topic to be revived.

Eric Trump, one of the sons of the president-elect, put his foot into the controversy by publishing a meme on social networks that shows his father adding Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal in your Amazon shopping cart.

For some it is a simple joke or a negotiating strategy by Trump, but Republican Congressman Carlos Giménez warned in an interview with Fox Business: “I always take it seriously, even though it may sound a little strange.”