Posted by Alumni from The Atlantic
January 8, 2025
In a news conference today, President-Elect Donald Trump previewed his second-term approach to foreign policy. One theme was force: He didn't rule out using the military to seize the Panama Canal or to acquire Greenland, and floated the idea of employing 'economic force' to compel Canada to operate as an American state. Some of his ideas seem largely symbolic; at one point, he suggested renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. But these statements also fall into what my colleague David Frum has called a zero-sum attitude toward the rest of the world. Either a foreign country is with Donald Trump'and ready to collaborate with American interests'or it is against him. Trump's transactional outlook has put foreign leaders in a difficult position'including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced his resignation yesterday. Trump has threatened in recent months to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canada, and he's relished taunting the nation, repeatedly making comments... learn more