Trump Escalates Panama, Greenland Threats

President-elect puts military or economic coercion on the table as he upends norms

- Alex Leary, Tarini Parti and Vivian Salama

President-elect Donald Trump declined to rule out using military or economic coercion to gain control of Greenland and the Panama Canal, ratcheting up his campaign to expand the U.S.'s global footprint.

"I'm not going to commit to that now. It might be that you'll have to do something," Trump said at a news conference Tuesday. He was responding to a question about whether he could offer reassurances that he wouldn't leverage U.S. military and economic might to get his way.

Since winning the election, Trump has repeatedly raised the idea of taking over the Panama Canal from Panama and taking control of Greenland from Denmark. He has also said that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state, in an apparent effort to troll Justin Trudeau, the country's departing prime minister.

During Tuesday's news conference, Trump threatened to hit Denmark with tariffs "at a very high level" if Danish officials don't cooperate with his bid to take over Greenland. He also questioned whether Denmark had any legal right to control the territory.

"People really don't even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security," Trump, a Republican, said.

Representatives for Denmark's foreign ministry and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen didn't respond to requests for comment. Frederiksen said in a Danish television interview on Tuesday that Greenland isn't for sale. "Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland. Our future and fight for independence is our business," Múte Egede, Greenland's prime minister, said in a statement.