CNN: Trump Posts About Territorial Wish List on Christmas Day

FREEMAN: “Let’s talk politics. Donald Trump is adding to his wish list for Christmas with the Panama Canal, Greenland, and Canada apparently on the top of his mind. In a Christmas Day post announcing his choice for U.S. ambassador to Panama, Trump once again claimed Panama is quote, ‘ripping us off on the Panama Canal.’ In recent days, the president-elect has fixated on the canal, arguing the U.S. should reclaim control of the waterway. Panama’s president has called such talks non-negotiable. And President-Elect Trump’s annual Christmas message also posted musings about expanding the U.S. territory at the expense of Western Hemisphere neighbors. In his post, he once again called Canada’s prime minister governor, and imagined if quote, ‘Canada was to become our 51st state.’ And once again, he eyed Greenland, saying the Danish-controlled territory is quote, ‘needed by the United States for national security purposes.’ Now, the idea of buying Greenland isn’t really a new one for Donald Trump. He first floated it as a possibility back in 2019. Leaders in Denmark and Greenland have dismissed the proposal. And this week, Greenland’s prime minister responded by saying, ‘Greenland, not for sale.’ In 2019, Denmark’s prime minister called it absurd, a critique which the then-president did not appreciate.”
[Clip starts]
Trump: “Denmark, I look forward to going, but I thought that the prime minister’s statement that it was absurd, that wasn’t — it was an absurd idea, it was nasty. I thought it was an inappropriate statement. All she had to do is say, ‘No, we wouldn’t be interested.’”
[Clip ends]