Greenland, Canada, Panama: How Trump 2.0 is going to be a wild ride

In a week that saw a staggeringly large wildfire lay Los Angeles low, for which the ‘progressive’ mayor and the governor could be partly to blame, it was also intriguing to see president-to-be Donald Trump’s statements about purchasing Canada and Greenland and laying claim to the Panama Canal.

There was also the withering attack on Britain—including direct accusations against their prime minister, Keir Starmer—over the horrific gang rapes of young girls there for decades. Presidential Buddy #1, Elon Musk, used X (Twitter) to exhume this story of 250,000 girls (according to Musk) being turned into sex slaves. It had been swept under the carpet.

My first reaction to these—how shall I put it politely—“imperial” assertions was that Trump is being himself, mercurial, and that he was merely making flippant comments with no intention of following through. But on thinking about it, there is a certain logic to it, as outrageous as it might appear.

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On the one hand, there is precedent: the US did buy Alaska from Russia and Louisiana from France. There is also precedent for invasions: it invaded Mexico and annexed, if I remember correctly, California, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and bits of several other states. Furthermore, the province of Panama itself was separated from Columbia by the US in 1903.

On the other hand, there are fairly good reasons for all this. I have been of the opinion that the recent H1-B narrative was astroturfed by the British Deep State (“Whitehall”); the Musk counter-narrative on rape affects both Whitehall and its Parliament (“Westminster”), as Starmer appeared unnerved in debate with his opposition; who knows if it might lead to his downfall?

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Apart from any personal reasons Musk may have (he himself went through the H-1B system and may be sensitive about it), it is yet another indication that the alleged ‘Special Relationship’ between the US and the UK may now be mostly a pious myth. Trump, rightly, focused on the Quad, and it was Biden, an Atlanticist, who cooked up the AUKUS (Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) submarine alliance, which seems to have achieved very little so far, although The Economist magazine talks it up.

Britain, to nobody’s surprise after Brexit, is spiralling down into irrelevance.

Trump has also in the past made noises about Europeans not bearing their fair share of the cost of the NATO military alliance: he prodded them to increase their spending to 2 per cent of respective GDP and now may want more. He does not seem to think it’s America’s duty to spend blood and treasure protecting wealthy Europeans from the alleged Russian threat.

But the Canada/Greenland offer is not so much about Europe as it is about China. It is about the fabled Northwest Passage, the alternative polar route for trade, which becomes viable as a result of global warming. This can become a new seaborne trade route between the Atlantic and the Pacific, much of which is now through the Panama Canal.

In an engaging conversation on pgurus.com, retired General and geo-strategist Rajiv Narayan laid out the case for fending off the Chinese. He said they have been talking up the ‘Arctic Silk Route’, which alarmed the Russians, who immediately upgraded the military capability of some of their Arctic Ocean outposts.

China does have a problem. They are concerned about their dependence on the Straits of Malacca, which India (and possibly other Quad members) could blockade. They have been talking to the Thais about a canal through the Isthmus of Kra, and it is possible they may have grand plans of getting access to Chittagong (after surgically removing India’s control of the Northeast by invading through the Chicken’s Neck).

The Chinese are also active in the Panama Canal. A Hong Kong firm now runs two major ports, Balboa and Cristobal, at either end of the canal. Chinese firms also run the Panama-Colon container port under the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative). They also have a railway project that is a direct competitor to the Panama Canal, the 3000-kilometre Bi-Oceanic Corridor, from Brazil’s port of Santos to Peru’s port of Ilo, connecting the Pacific to the Atlantic.

Thus, it is not purely idle talk on the part of Trump to pinpoint Canada, Alaska, and the Panama Canal. There is a method to this apparent madness. There are also immense mineral resources in both Canada and Greenland, which will become accessible as the tundra thaws.

Canadians may well accept such an offer from the US, considering the mess their politicians, especially Trudeau, have made. The Canadian dollar is now at 0.69 US dollars, down from a peak of 1.06 US dollars in 2011. In addition, the Trump threat of 25 per cent tariffs on Canada, if put in place, could squeeze that nation’s exports.

As for Greenland, its sparse population of only about 57,000 people may not feel particularly Danish, since they were actually colonised by the Danes around 1721. They may well be willing to join the US. Incidentally, we are all used to thinking Greenland is a gigantic landmass, but that is an illusion from the Mercator Projection. In reality, it is about 2/3rds the size of India and about the same as Saudi Arabia.

Be that as it may, what is most relevant to India in these musings by Trump is whether it gives any clues as to how he may affect India’s interests. If he is intensely focused on China, then that is good for India. If he wants to cut Europe down to size and to exit the disastrous Ukraine war, India would benefit. If he can end the Gaza war, great.

Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, visited India recently. It is likely that the intent was to bully into unilateral concessions before Trump takes over. I saw a new AI roadmap on Twitter that shows a) allies with whom the US will share technology (basically the Anglosphere + Japan + some of Western Europe), b) friends with which it will be arms-length (most of the world, including India), and then c) foes that will be sanctioned (China, for example).

Then there is the Damocles Sword of tariffs hanging over India (Trump claims India has the highest tariffs in the world, and he threatens to retaliate in kind), and these will hurt.

At the moment, trying to define Trump’s foreign policy is a tall order. We have to read the tea leaves or chicken entrails or extrapolate from whatever crumbs of information we get. This is going to be a wild ride.

The writer has been a conservative columnist for over 25 years. His academic interest is innovation. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.