Some notes on Trump’s threats against Canada, Greenland, and Panama

By Michael Pröbsting, Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 10 January 2025, www.thecommunists.net

For three weeks, Trumps threatens to annex Canada, Greenland, and Panama and explicitly does not rule out the use of military force – except for Canada where he wants to use only “economic force”.

Initially, it seemed to be one of the endless series of “jokes” which have become the trademark of the orange man. Readers might remember, that only a few days ago Trump demanded an investigation of Hezbollah’s role in the riots of his right-wing supporters at the Capitol on 6 January 2021 which he himself had orchestrated! But since the incoming U.S. President and his crazed parrots in Fox News and on social media promote these imperialist projects now every day, one has to take these undisguised threats seriously.

Of course, there exists a certain element of logic. Trump wants to “Make America Great Again” so he hopes to fulfill this promise – after his blatant failure during the first term – at least in a geographical sense. So, he hopes to expand America’s territory. Putin did it for Russia in Eastern Ukraine so, why shall it not work also for “the greatest of all nations”?!

More seriously, it is true that America’s trade relies a lot on container trade via the Panama Canal so taking it over might reduce the tariff for the U.S. and, at the same time, would allow Washington to raise it for other states. [1]

Likewise, Greenland – which belongs to Denmark and, hence, the EU – is strategically located for control of the Artic, a shipping route of increasing importance thanks to climate change. An American occupation would also bring the U.S. military closer to Russia and China. On the other hand, however, the U.S. has already a military base in Greenland – the Pituffik Space Base – since many decades.

In any case, Trump’s desire to annex Greenland is certainly also motivated by the fact the island is exceptionally rich in so-called “critical minerals.” According to a 2024 report in The Economist, the island has known deposits of 43 out of 50 of these minerals.

Another reason is that Trump has nothing to offer to the American people but massive attacks against their democratic and social rights. So, in order to deflect popular anger, he has to wipe up chauvinism against migrants at home and other countries abroad.

In any case, it is astonishing how the incoming President manages to provoke the most important allies of U.S. imperialism – Canada and the EU powers which, by the way, constitute four of the other six members of the Western core alliance G-7. It is an ABC for all strategists of Western imperialism that its main enemies are China and its ally Russia. As we have explained many times, the U.S. is a declining hegemon. ^[2] It is too weak to contain the new Eastern imperialist powers alone. For this it will need other Western powers. But it seems that Trump and his circle of power-hungry clowns have decided to attack America’s own allies first. With friends like this, who needs enemies?!

We will see if Trump will carry out his threats. What is already certain is:

1) Trump successfully undermines the Western imperialist alliance by threatening the Canadian and European allies.

2) He shows the imperialist nature of the U.S. naked and unadulterated and thus undermines its ideological legitimacy as a hegemonial power even more.

3) Trump destroys the last remaining illusions in the Western concept of a “rule-based order” – something which has already been totally undermined by America’s and Europe’s unlimited support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Even mainstream media like Associated Press call Trumps threats to annex Canada, Greenland, and Panama “imperialism”! [3]

This is no small achievement for a President who has not even formally entered the White House! Recently, we called Trump “the Great Disruptor”. ^[4] We should add now that he is also a dysfunctional disruptor!

Lenin used to say that honourable people can only welcome if robbers fight each other. And so it is. If American and other Western imperialists have a go at each other, socialists have no side to choose. If Washington invades Panama, or any other semi-colonial country of the Global South, workers and oppressed must rally in their defence against the imperialist monster! ^[5]