Key lines from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago news conference
CNN
President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday intensified his push for American expansionism, refusing to rule out using military force to add Greenland to the United States and retake control of the Panama Canal.
President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday intensified his push for American expansionism, refusing to rule out using military force to add Greenland to the United States and retake control of the Panama Canal. In a wide-ranging news conference at Mar-a-Lago — his second since winning the 2024 election — he also said he could use “economic force” to turn Canada into the United States’ 51st state. “You get rid of that artificially drawn line and you take a look at what that looks like — and it would also be much better for national security,” Trump said at his Florida estate. The imperialistic land grabs Trump is floating — which, if he follows through and succeeds, would represent the first major changes to the American map since Hawaii’s statehood in 1959 — are a dramatic break from the foreign policy approaches of presidents in both parties in recent decades. And they come as Western leaders have opposed Russia’s attempts at expansion into formerly Soviet territory, including its war in Ukraine. During his hour long remarks, Trump also stewed over a series of grievances — including the legal cases brought against him, the Biden administration’s handling of the transition and energy efficiency and environmental regulations that he doesn’t like. Trump said he’d issue “major pardons” over convictions in connection with the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and threatened Hamas, saying it must release the hostages kidnapped in Israel during the October 7, 2023, attack.
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President Donald Trump’s efforts to leverage the Justice Department for political purposes and to exact retribution against his perceived foes haven’t suffered from a series of setbacks.