U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that his statements about the potential incorporation of Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal into the United States are not a joke. He made the remarks during an interview with Time magazine.
When the journalist suggested that Trump might be “trolling a bit” on the subject, he replied, “Not really,” adding that the idea relates to the “expansion of the American empire.” Although he clarified that he doesn’t view the U.S. as an empire in the traditional sense, he considers such expansion reasonable under the right circumstances.
According to Trump, Greenland holds strategic value for both U.S. national and international security. Regarding Canada, he stated that the United States loses between $200 to $250 billion annually supporting it:
We provide their military, nearly every aspect of their lives… We don’t need their cars, we want to build them ourselves. We don’t need their timber, their energy. We don’t need anything from Canada, Trump said. In his view, the only logical solution is for Canada to become a U.S. state.
He also mentioned the Panama Canal but did not provide further details about the potential for American control over it.
