What Is Driving Trump’s Landgrab Plans?

Empowering Weak & Oppressed

Waseem Shehzad

Sha'ban 02, 1446 2025-02-01

News & Analysis

by Waseem Shehzad (News & Analysis, Crescent International Vol. 54, No. 12, Sha'ban, 1446)

Image Source - AI-ChatGPT

Weeks before his inauguration on January 20 as the 47th president of the United States, Donald Trump had laid claims to a number of countries and territories. These include Canada, Greenland, the Gulf of Mexico and the Panama Canal.

In his inaugural address as president, Trump said he was renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the ‘Gulf of America’ and vowed to take over the Panama Canal. He said it has been handed over to the Chinese and enormous fees are being charged for passage despite the fact that 38,000 Americans died building it.

While he did not name taking over Greenland in his inaugural speech, he made clear that “the United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations, and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons.” Greenland, Denmark and Canada beware!

We will consider the reasons behind Trump’s outlandish claims but given his nature, he appears dead serious. He is extremely unpredictable and lives in a world of his own.

In December, Trump created quite a stir when he announced that illegal immigrants were coming into the US through the Canada-US border. The long porous border was also being used to smuggle drugs, he alleged. He threatened to impose 25% tariffs on goods from Canada if smuggling of immigrants and drugs was not stopped.

Alarmed by Trump’s threats, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau led a large delegation to Mar-a-Lago to assure the US president-elect of Canada’s firm resolve to comply with his demands. Trudeau said Canada will hire more border security guards as well as deploy drones to monitor the border.

It was during this meeting that Trump dropped his bomb shell: Canada should become the 51st state of America! As a sop to Trudeau, Trump said he could be the ‘governor’ of the state of Canada. Trudeau was not amused but apart from a nervous smile, he could do little.

Unfortunately Trudeau would not become even the ‘governor’ of Canada. He is on his way out having announced his decision to resign as prime minister after a successor is chosen. He had faced relentless pressure from caucus members to resign because of persistent low approval ratings in the polls. He will soon become another has-been.

What is behind Trump’s irrational outbursts? His narcissism and oversize ego cannot explain these claims. Despite his low IQ, there is a method to Trump’s madness.

Greenland is rich in minerals, including rare earth metals and minerals. With 2.166 sq km of territory, it has a very small population: barely 57,000. New York City’s population is 8.3 million. Even New York City’s homeless population of 350,000 is six times the total population of Greenland!

Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede rejected Trump’s demand. “Greenland is not for sale,” he said. Will the Greenlanders be able to defend themselves against the invading American forces? Trump has not ruled out the use of force.

Vice President J D Vance had told the rightwing Fox News on Sunday (January 12) that an invasion of Greenland may not be necessary. The US already has troops on the island. Trump’s National Security Advisor-designate Mike Waltz meanwhile said at a Senate hearing that Trump is not taking any options off the table regarding Greenland.

Technically, Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark. When the Danes (Vikings) first sailed westward they landed on a small island in the North Atlantic. Going further north, they found another, much larger island but being closer to the Arctic, it was totally frozen and largely unihabitable.

The Danes thought they would trick people by naming the habitable island, ‘Iceland’ so predators would not be attracted to it. Instead, they would go to the island they named ‘Greenland’. Their cleverness has caught up with them. Trump wants Greenland. It is full of minerals including rate earth metals.

The US desire to acquire or occupy Greenland is not new. It has been mentioned before. In 2019, Trump cancelled a visit to Denmark because it refused to sell Greenland to the US.

The same applies to his ambition to take over Canada, perhaps a little bit more politely by making it the 51st state of the US. American rulers have toyed with the idea stretching hundreds of years. The unpredictable Trump has spelled out directly to the weak and soon to disappear Canadian prime minister Trudeau.

What we must address, however, is what drives Trump’s landgrab project. In one word, it is China. The rise of the Asian giant, economically and militarily, is what drives American policy-makers crazy. They want to confront it to weaken it.

Trump thinks that by grabbing weaker neighbours, he can fortify the US. This will enable America to acquire not only vast stretches of territory but more importantly, vital mineral resources.

There is fear among US policy-makers that West Asia is slipping out of their control. The era of US gunboat diplomacy in that region is drawing to a close. Countries in America’s neighbourhood are soft targets. Neither Greenland nor Denmark, whose territory it legally is, can stand up to the US.

Nor can Canada, despite the bluster of some academics and politicians. Canadians may be patriotic and willing to stand up to US bullying but there is so much they can do. Is it realistic to assume that Canadians will fight an invading US army? Relying on the Commonwealth countries or the Europeans to assist Canada is also unrealistic.

The last US-Canada war was in 1812. Canada was then under Britain’s control. The British army reached Washington and the White House was destroyed—it was blackened with gunpowder—before being driven back. The Americans rebuilt it and named it the “White House”.

In 2025, or whenever Trump decides to invade the neighbour to the north, Canada would be on its own. If Trump imposes 25% tariffs on Canadian goods entering the US, Canada can do likewise. With more than one billion dollars worth of goods crossing the border daily, this would lead to absolute chaos. Prices would skyrocket in both countries.

Trump, however, is not a stable person. Think of a monkey with a loaded gun. It will either blow its own brains out or someone else’s. Either way, the result would be a mess.

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