USA. Donald Trump does not rule out using military or economic pressure to occupy Greenland and the Panama Canal

President-elect Donald Trump was asked at a conference on Tuesday if he could ensure that he would not use military or economic coercion in an attempt to gain control of the Panama Canal and Greenland.

– No, I can't assure you about either of those two. But I can say that we need them for economic security, he said. – I'm not going to commit to it – he added in response to a reporter's question.

Also on Tuesday, the president-elect's son, businessman Donald Trump Jr., flew on his father's plane to Nuuk, the capital of Greenland.

Donald Trump on his social media platform Truth Social published a video of the Boeing 757-200 landing, writing that Trump Jr. and “my representatives were warmly welcomed” by the Greenlanders. In the entry he also referred to his proposal to buy Greenland from Denmark. “They and the free world need security, protection, strength and peace. This is an agreement that is a must. MAGA. Make Greenland Great Again,” wrote the president-elect.

Trump Jr.'s arrival He sparked a lot of interest from locals who welcomed him at the airport and took photos with him. Some of them wore baseball caps with the inscription MAGA (Make America Great Again) – Trump's political slogan.

Greenlandic and Danish media reported on Monday that Trump Jr. will meet in Greenland with representatives of local politicians supporting independence. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Trump's son said the visit was private.

Greenland's Prime Minister Mute Egede stated on Facebook that “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders, and their future and fight for independence is their private matter.” He added that Americans and Danes may have different opinions.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, in a statement for the Danish television TV2, emphasized that Greenland's aspirations for independence are justified and the island is not for sale. Frederiksen had already refused to sell the island to President Trump in 2019.

Donald Trump, appointing an ambassador in Copenhagen, wrote at the end of December on the Truth Social website that for America “possession and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity“. – For the purposes of national security and freedom around the world – he said.

He thus returned to the issue raised during his first term in the White House, when he tried to buy Greenland, which was an autonomous territory dependent on Denmark. Both the local Greenlandic and Danish authorities strongly rejected the idea at the time, considering it a joke. According to The Wall Street Journal reports at the time, Trump returned to the topic several times “with varying levels of seriousness.”

Greenland arouses his interest due to its strategic location in the Arctic. This largest island in the world has military and economic importance due to the increasingly faster progress climate changeincluding the melting of glaciers, the survival of which is linked to the future of the entire Earth.