WASHINGTON – Although President-elect Donald Trump won't take office for nearly two weeks, he's already making his “America First” mantra a priority — and it could extend to other parts of the world, too.
Trump proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico and would not rule out using military force in Panama convoluted press conference that touched on several sensitive foreign policy points on Tuesday.
“All hell will break loose in the Middle East”
Trump commented on the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and promised to make vague threats if the hostages were not returned to Israel by Inauguration Day.
“If they're not back by the time I take office, all hell will break out in the Middle East, and it won't be good for Hamas, and it won't be good for anyone, frankly,” he said.
Dozens of people are still being held hostage in Gaza, 15 months after the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel in which Hamas killed about 1,200 people and captured about 250 others. Israel has since bombed Gaza and the West Bank, killing more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities.
The United States has been negotiating with Israel and Hamas and other states in the region to end the conflict and release the hostages for more than a year, making steady progress but failing to reach an agreement. Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said at Tuesday's news conference that he would travel to Doha, the capital of Qatar, to continue negotiations, even though Trump's administration does not take office for another two weeks.
“I think we've made really great progress, and I'm really confident that we'll be able to announce some good things on behalf of the president between now and the inauguration,” Witkoff said. It is not clear what actual authority Witkoff had before Trump became president.
“Gulf of America”
As always, Trump's focus quickly turned to the southern border, where he said the administration would rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”
“It has a beautiful sound,” he said. “That covers a large area, the Gulf of America. What a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate.”
The Gulf of Mexico covers the entire east coast of Mexico, stretching from the southernmost tip of Texas to the base of Florida. Trump reiterated that he plans to impose tariffs on Mexican goods to make the southern neighbor pay for drugs and immigrants to enter the United States.
Trump's tariff threats have rattled Mexico's leadership as President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office on October 1, faces her first potential crisis.
The president has done her best to convince the Trump team that Mexico is cracking down on fentanyl trafficking and illegal migration. But she also had to manage a delicate balancing act: not offending Trump while standing up for Mexican sovereignty in the face of tariff threats that, if implemented, experts say could plunge Mexico into a deep recession and trigger retaliatory tariffs by Mexico on imports from U.S. Were.
Mexico is the United States' largest trading partner, with annual trade volume exceeding $800 billion.
Sheinbaum announced a campaign against domestic use of fentanyl in Mexico in her regular morning news conference early Tuesday. She reiterated her country's efforts to curb the production and distribution of fentanyl for the US market.
“We are fighting” the spread of fentanyl, Sheinbaum told reporters, pointing to the recent seizure of more than 500,000 fentanyl pills — the largest such seizure in Mexican history — in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, a hub of fentanyl production and distribution.
Trump also stepped up his rhetorical broadsides against Mexico, claiming that Mexico is “essentially run by the cartels.” …. This shouldn't happen. Mexico is really in trouble. Lots of trouble. Very dangerous place.”
Mexican authorities have repeatedly denied that cartels control the country, although security experts say organized crime actually controls large swathes of Mexican territory. Mexican officials have also rejected suggestions from Trump and his allies about possible U.S. military strikes on cartel strongholds and pushed back against the idea of designating Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations – which has been voiced at times by Trump and his supporters.
President-elect Donald Trump at Tuesday's press conference.
(Evan Vucci/Associated Press)
Trump does not rule out military action in Panama or Greenland
The president-elect set his sights on the Panama Canal, a frequent target of his. He claimed that the canal was in poor condition and that China should foot the bill for repairs, adding that the United States was charged more than other countries for using the commercial waterway.
The U.S. is one of the waterway's biggest users, and fees, while lower than those for other canals such as the Suez, have risen due to drought afflicting much of Central America and exacerbated by human-caused climate change. Trump has falsely claimed that Chinese soldiers were running the canal, although it is true that China has made infrastructural and economic advances in Panama and throughout the region.
“They have overwhelmed our ships and our Navy, and then when they need money for repairs, they come to the United States to pay for it. We get nothing,” he said. “Those days are over.”
He also referred to the annexation of Greenland, an island of about 56,000 people, which is a national territory of 100,000 people Denmark.
“We need Greenland for national security reasons,” Trump said. “I’m talking about protecting the free world. You don't even need binoculars. When you look outside you see Chinese ships everywhere. There are Russian ships everywhere. We won’t allow that.”
Greenland's prime minister quickly dismissed any suggestions of a Trump takeover.
“Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders” said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksenaccording to TV 2.
“As president, I want to make it clear that every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent territory belongs and will continue to be part of PANAMA,” Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said in a statement last month. “The sovereignty and independence of our country are non-negotiable.”
When a reporter asked Trump on Tuesday whether he would commit not to use “military or economic coercion” in Panama or Greenland, Trump quickly replied: “No.”
Trump also added that negotiations over Panama's maintenance of the canal were one of the failed legacies of the late President Carter, whose funeral Trump is scheduled to attend this week. In fact, control of the canal, which runs through Panama and has long been a symbol of U.S. imperialism, was ended at the insistence of the U.S. military, which declared long before Carter took office that maintaining and operating the canal was unsustainable. Carter's decision was widely celebrated and earned the United States great political capital throughout Latin America.
Pinho and Wilkinson reported from Washington, DC. McDonnell reported from Mexico City.