Trump’s threats to Greenland, Canada and Panama explain everything about America First

CNN —

Donald Trump’s imperialist designs on Greenland, Canada and Panama often sound like the ramblings of a real estate shark who equates foreign and trade policy to a hunt for new deals.

But there’s method in his expansionist mindset. Trump, in his unique way, is grappling with national security questions the US must face in a new world shaped by China’s rise, the inequalities of globalization, melting polar ice and great power instability.

US President-elect Donald Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. at an election night watch party on Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla.

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His attitude also embodies the “America First” principle of using US strength to relentlessly pursue narrow national interests, even by coercing smaller, allied powers.

Trump’s musings about terminating the Panama Canal Treaty especially show the preoccupation of the new administration with the encroachment of foreign powers into the Western Hemisphere. This isn’t a new concern — it’s been a constant thread in American history, dating back to the Monroe Doctrine in the 1820s when European colonialists were the threat. The issue endured through the communist scares of the Cold War. Today’s usurpers are China, Russia and Iran.

Trump’s belief, meanwhile, that the United States should rule supreme in its own sphere of influence is also an important hint about how he might manage key global hotspots, including the war in Ukraine and potentially even Taiwan.

But his 21st century neocolonialism is a huge risk and appears certain to run headlong into international law. And Trump could compromise America’s power by trashing alliances built up over generations and