President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday would not rule out using economic or military pressure to take control of the Panama Canal or Greenland, insisting the United States needs both "for economic security."
"I can't assure you on either of those two," he told reporters at a news conference after he was asked if he could assure the world about his next steps. The news conference aired on Newsmax and the Newsmax2 online streaming platform.
The Panama Canal, he said was built by the U.S. military and is vital to the United States, but "it's being operated by China."
"We gave the Panama Canal to Panama," he said. "We didn't give it to China, and they've abused that gift."
He added the decision by the late President Jimmy Carter, whose funeral is Thursday in Washington, D.C., to turn over control of the Panama Canal was a "big mistake," adding it was the main reason he lost reelection in 1980, more so than the hostage crisis in Iran.
"Nobody wants to talk about the Panama Canal because, you know, it's inappropriate, I guess, but because it's a bad part of the Carter legacy," said Trump, adding, Carter was a "good man" and a "very fine person, but that was a big mistake."
Meanwhile, the U.S. needs Greenland for national security purposes, Trump said, adding that "people really don't even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security. That's for the free world. I'm talking about protecting the free world."
He added that there are Chinese and Russian ships "all over the place" near Greenland, which the U.S. would not permit.
"The people are going to probably vote for independence or to come into the United States," Trump said, adding that if Denmark wouldn't give up control, then he would impose tariffs on Copenhagen at a "very high level."
Meanwhile, with Canada, which Trump has hinted at making it the U.S.'s 51st state, he said if you "get rid of that artificially drawn line" it would be "much better for national security" to link the countries.
"We basically protect Canada … I love the Canadian people," he said. "We're spending hundreds of billions a year to take care of Canada. We lose in trade deficits."
But Trump said the U.S. doesn't need the cars or lumber Canada produces.
"We don't need anything they have," he said. "We don't need their dairy products. We have more than they have. We don't need anything. So why are we losing $200 billion a year and more to protect Canada?"
He added the U.S. has a right to refuse to help Canada with its financial difficulties, even while not annexing the country.
"Why are we supporting a country at $200 billion-plus a year?" he said. "Our military is at their disposal; all of these other things, they should be a state. That's why I told [Justin] Trudeau when he came down, I said, what would happen if we didn't do it? He said Canada would dissolve."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.