Former US President Barack Obama and US President-elect Donald Trump next to his wife Melania, talk on the day of the State Funeral for former US President Jimmy Carter at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, on January 9, 2025.
Donald Trump is back. Older and even more unpredictable, he will take the oath of office as the 47 president of the United States in 10 days.
But he is coming with his usual unique formula of leadership, which is making lots of people, in the US and outside, sweat. He promised to investigate and jail people who pissed him off when he lost power.
While he may not touch members of Congress, including those who investigated the so-called January 6 insurrection when Trump’s supporters overran the Capitol Hill to stop Joe Biden from being declared winner of the 2020 election, the others – lawyers, officials and so on – might be in a spot of bother. There is talk of President Biden pardoning them en masse before he wafts off to retirement.
The Don has made it obvious that he considers the territorial expansion of the US a priority. First, he wants Canada to be the 51st state of the United States, not quite the first time Americans have coveted their northern neighbour.
Peace agreement
In 1812, they tried to take it by force of arms three times and the Canadians fought them to a draw. Eventually they signed a peace agreement and have since been resigned to Canadian sovereignty. Now the Don says he will use “economic force” to bring Canada to heel.
“There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” chimed outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Mr Trump said when he threatened Canada with tariffs, his favourite balm for all economic aches and pains, tears welled up in Mr Trudeau’s eyes, obviously a sign of the most atrocious weakness.
May be The Don feels Canada would be better led under the warm protection of Mama America.
Mr Trump insists he is not after Canadian wealth – timber or manufacturing plants.
“The United State can no longer suffer the trade deficits and subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat,” he said.
Canada has a $70 billion trade surplus with the US, which is money that Mr Trump considers the US to have “given” to Canada.
Writing on Truth Social, Mr Trump added: “If Canada merged with the US, there would be no tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be totally secure from the threat of the Russian and Chinese ships that are constantly surrounding them.”
When a hyena wants to eat its own children, it first accuses them of smelling like goats. Further down to the South, Mr Trump is eyeing the Panama Canal and wants to reassert US control over it.
The canal was built and run by America, took them 10 years to do the job, and is a strategic piece of infrastructure, joining the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, an essential route for trade between the United States and Asia.
The US, however, gradually handed over control to Panama, completely getting out in 1999.
Now The Don says Panama is ripping off the US and hints that the canal is being gifted to China, the bogeyman of the moment. The US has, of course, no legal claim to Panamian territory, but that would not stop The Don. He also wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, for whatever reason.
North America
As for Greenland, the biggest island on earth and a self-governing territory of Denmark, even though it is considered to be in North America, which sits strategically between Europe, Antarctica and North America, the US most probably wants to ward off the Russians and the Chinese.
There is a virtually no one there: two million square kilometres inhabited by 56,000 Inuit, you can get in there and do whatever you want without anyone ever being any the wiser. It is suspected to be mineral-rich, though, which would account for some of the interest.
Mr Trump sent his son there on a private visit this week to take a look around and probably make contact with locals. But there is no doubting what the intentions are.
“For purposes of national security and freedom throughout the world, the US feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” he declared on Truth Social.
Of course by “United States”, he means Donald Trump. Denmark has said the territory is not for sale but that is unlikely to impress the man.
I see Mr Trump as an American necessity, a force of nature that comes to upset the apple cart, a man who will, without a second thought, say and do things that are considered taboo but could be beneficial, a bold and disruptive leader who burns the grass so that there is a brand new crop when the rains come. The risk is that he could burn the house along with the grass. But the grass would still grow, no?
Mr Mathiu, a media consultant at Steward-Africa, is a former Editor-in-Chief of Nation Media Group. [email protected].
