Will Trump really take Canada and Greenland?

Americast

BBC

Politics, Government, News

4.2 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It was a press conference intended to showcase investment from a Dubai-based firm in new US data centres, but its focus quickly switched to what the incoming president might do when it comes to America’s closest neighbours.

Fielding questions from reporters, Donald Trump refused to rule out the use of military force to acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal. While he appeared to rule out the possibility when it came to Canada, Trump did say he would use “economic force” to annex Canada and described their shared border as “an artificially drawn line”.

How seriously should the world take Trump’s threats, and what do they indicate about his strategy when he takes office in 12 days time?

HOSTS:

• Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter • Sarah Smith, North America Editor • Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent

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Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:04.9	Okay, before we started, Sarah and I were talking about storms, storms in D.C.
0:09.2	Because I'm interested in whether there's going to be snow when I come out for the inauguration.
0:12.2	But oh my goodness, there was a storm in Mar-a-Lago, and it's a storm.
0:16.6	It is fair to say that touches every territory and nation close to the United States and some
0:22.6	not that close as well.
0:23.7	Well, we need Greenland for national security purposes.
0:27.5	I've been told that for a long time, long before I even ran, I mean, people have been
0:31.5	talking about it for a long time.
0:33.1	People really don't even know if Denmark has any legal right to it. But if they do, they should give it up
0:39.4	because we need it for national security. That's for the free world. I'm talking about protecting
0:43.6	the free world. Are you also considering military force? Do annex and acquire it?
0:47.9	No. Economic force. Because Canada and the United States, that would really be something.
0:55.2	You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like,
1:00.4	and it would also be much better for national security.
1:03.1	Don't forget, we basically protect Canada.
1:05.2	We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,
1:12.6	which has a beautiful ring.
1:14.5	That covers a lot of territory.
1:16.7	The Gulf of America.
1:17.8	What a beautiful name.
1:19.1	This was such a wide-ranging and occasionally bizarre press conference.
	...

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