Trump’s America First becomes America expands

President-elect Trump’s imperialist tendencies ahead of his second term are begging a question that dominated his first term: Should he be taken seriously, or literally?

Trump during a Tuesday press conference declined to rule out using military force to gain control of Greenland and the Panama Canal.

He said he would use economic force to merge the U.S. with Canada, shrugging off the border between the countries as an “artificial line.”

He threatened to tariff Denmark at “a very high level” if it did not relinquish control of Greenland, the autonomous territory home to valuable minerals.

As he spoke, Donald Trump Jr. was in Greenland where he was joined by influential conservative activist Charlie Kirk and two members of the incoming Trump administration: Sergio Gor, who will head the Presidential Personnel Office, and James Blair, who will serve as a deputy chief of staff.

Chris LaCivita, who co-managed the senior Trump’s 2024 campaign, quipped that the group amounted to a “Landing Team” in Greenland.

A source familiar said Trump Jr. did not meet with any Greenland government official and was there to film content for an upcoming podcast, but he posed for photos with Greenlanders clad in red “Make America Great Again” hats.

Trump has long used bombastic rhetoric as a negotiating and posturing tool, and the same is likely the case here, particularly when it comes to threats of military force. Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark, which is a NATO member. Using military force against a NATO member would create chaos and confusion among allies.

Annexing Canada as the 51st state is also unlikely to come to pass. But Trump’s constant belittling of the neighbor to the north is likely intended to bring Canadian leaders to heel as he threatens tariffs and seeks to renegotiate the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that was brokered during Trump’s first term.

Trump’s rhetoric also has the benefit of giving fodder to his supporters, who have embraced his view of American exceptionalism and dominance abroad and relish seeing liberals overreact to what the president-elect is saying.

It was in that spirit that Trump declared Tuesday that he would soon seek to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”

Numerous Trump allies cheered the idea on social media — “I am SO HERE FOR THIS,” former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) wrote — and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) quickly announced she would introduce legislation to make the change official on government maps.

The idea of an imperialist second Trump term has ruffled feathers abroad.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Tuesday that Greenland “is not for sale and will not be in the future either.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday there “isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.” His potential replacement, Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre, has said Canada “will never be the 51st state of the U.S.”

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino previously rejected Trump’s suggestion of the U.S. taking over the canal, which was built in the early 1900s and handed over to Panama as part of a 1977 treaty.

But Trump has not been one to take kindly to public rejection or embarrassment from other world leaders, and the pushback could only embolden him to inflict economic pain on those leaders.

Kirk, responding to Trudeau on social media, wrote to the Canadian prime minister: “When you’re playing defense, you’re already losing!”

An olive branch to China?

Trump revealed during a Monday interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that his team has already been in touch with counterparts from Beijing, another sign he may be interested in having a friendlier relationship with China.

“We’ve already been talking,” Trump said. “We’ve been talking through their representatives, and talking.”

It’s the latest indication that Trump is in contact with Beijing behind the scenes ahead of his second term, after his team had invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to the inauguration.

Trump spent much of his first term at odds with China over trade and eventually over the origin of the coronavirus.

But his public and private outreach, along with his fondness for the Chinese-owned TikTok app, signal a potentially softer approach toward Beijing.

House guests

There will be company at Mar-a-Lago this weekend, with Trump set to host dozens of House Republicans at his Florida residence to map out the path forward on the president-elect’s agenda.

Trump is also slated to meet with GOP senators while in Washington, D.C., Wednesday night ahead of former President Carter’s funeral service at the National Cathedral. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) is hosting that meeting, the details of which have largely been kept under wraps.

The president-elect and his team are hoping to avoid some of the pitfalls and communication breakdowns that sank or hindered parts of his agenda in his first term — most notably his effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

Trump has been in regular contact with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and other House members, and he has had nothing but praise so far with new Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who defeated the more MAGA Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) in a vote of GOP senators last year.

Comings and goings

Trump announced former White House aide Nick Luna would return to serve as deputy chief of staff for strategic implementation as part of a batch of staffing additions at the White House.

Luna was Trump’s body man during his first term and was among the close Trump aides who testified before the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the Capitol after being subpoenaed. 

His hiring, along with several other staffing announcements, is a sign that Trump is getting the band back together from his first term.

Trump has retained a close circle of aides since leaving office, with that group building a strong sense of camaraderie and trust after sticking by Trump during his brief time in the political wilderness.

Nearly all of them have already been given some White House role, with a few others expected to be announced soon.

For example, Trump has yet to announce a position yet for Margo Martin, who served as a press assistant in his first term and as deputy director of communications on his campaign and is expected to work in the second Trump White House.