You can excuse President-elect Donald Trump’s more outrageous statements as mere rhetorical flourish — and many, many Americans do, or he wouldn’t have been sent back to the White House by voters for his upcoming second term.
Trump voters clearly didn’t believe that they were backing some soft-spoken diplomat who keeps his opinions close to his vest. They like the chutzpah — and, when it comes to international affairs and promoting the best interests of the United States, believe it is part of his strategy to achieve a grand “Art of the Deal.”
Judge him by what he does, they say, not by what he says.
Fair enough.
But his return to the White House will also make him once again the most powerful national leader in the world, and with leadership comes responsibilities.
And for Americans who voted for him and those who didn’t, there’s also the matter of holding him to campaign promises, including his overarching theme of making America great “again” by pulling back from internationalist tendencies of previous administrations and sticking to our knitting at home.
Since that was what was promised on the campaign trail, what on Earth is he doing in talking about taking over giant Greenland, or sending troops to sovereign neighbor Mexico, or taking back the Panama Canal — or making Canada the 51st state?
Just rhetoric? Perhaps. But words in the mouth of the truly powerful have real meaning.
Trump this week said that United States ownership of Greenland is an “absolute necessity” for “purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World.”
Really? In fact, that’s sheer nonsense. Security and freedom seem just fine without taking on that iceberg of an island in the Arctic.
And it’s been a quarter-century since we relinquished the canal, a time in which international trade and the shipping that makes it possible have flourished.
Even Trump’s elected allies seem flummoxed, and unwilling to brush comments off as mere talk.
“I always take him seriously, even though they may sound a little bit out there,” Florida GOP Rep. Carlos Gimenez said on Fox Business on Monday. “It’s a legitimate threat to Panama.”
The prime minister of Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark, Mute Egede, said in a Facebook post on Monday, “Greenland is ours” and “we are not for sale and will never be for sale,” CNN reports.
Regarding Canada, Trump does appear to merely be enjoying skewering Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is at a moment of weakness in public support for his policies. While Trump’s threats to create a 25% tariff on imports of Canadian goods would be disastrous for both nations’ economies, he may seriously think that such outrage is good for future negotiations on trade issues.
And by threatening Denmark, he may believe that the tough-talk diplomacy will put the fear of God in other European nations with which he will be negotiating various economic and defense matters.
And by saber-rattling at Mexico and Panama, he probably thinks that therefore anything short of armed invasion will be seen as reasonable.
It’s still the kind of ridiculous talk that does not become a populist legend most. He may think it increases respect for the U.S. as a powerful world player. He’s dead wrong. In reality, it merely invites ridicule. The world already knows of our power. They live it every day.
We’re not going to take over — or buy, or trade for Puerto Rico — Greenland. We’re not invading Mexico or Central America. Canada is its own, important, country, and will remain so.
If Donald Trump wants to leave a serious legacy as a twice-elected president, he needs to both talk and act in serious ways on the world stage.
