While Donald Trump’s imperialistic vision was front-page news last month, the president’s territorial ambitions gradually moved to the backburner as other controversies surrounding his agenda moved to the fore. Thursday, the story came roaring back.
NBC News reported, for example, that the White House has directed the Pentagon to “draw up options to increase the American troop presence in Panama” to achieve the president’s goal of “reclaiming” the Panama Canal. The report added, “U.S. Southern Command is developing potential plans from partnering more closely with Panamanian security forces to the less likely option of U.S. troops’ seizing the Panama Canal by force, the officials said. Whether military force is used, the officials added, depends on how much Panamanian security forces agree to partner with the United States.”
The news was not well received in Panama City, where officials issued a statement emphasizing that “our sovereignty over the Panama Canal is absolute and not the basis of any negotiation.”
Around the same time that report was reaching the public, Trump had some related remarks about Greenland. NBC News reported on the comments, made during an Oval Office event alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Trump said in remarks in the Oval Office during his meeting with the NATO secretary general that he thinks the United States will succeed in his quest to take control of Greenland. “I think it’ll happen,” Trump said when he was asked what his vision is for the potential annexation of the country.
As part of the same set of comments, the American president also suggested that he might deploy additional U.S. troops to Greenland.
Trump "jokes" about invading Greenland while sitting next to NATO secretary: "We really need Greenland for national security. We have quite a few soldiers there. Maybe you'll see more and more soldiers go there, I don't know. What do you think about that, Pete? Don't answer that, Pete."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-03-13T19:29:40.618Z
As for officials in Denmark — a country Trump also slighted during the Oval Office event — Rasmus Jarlov, the chairman of the defense committee in Denmark’s parliament, said in a statement, “It would mean war between two NATO countries. Greenland has just voted against immediate independence from Denmark and does not want to be American ever.”
In case that weren’t quite enough, Trump — again, at the same Oval Office gathering — also made fresh comments about annexing the nation of Canada, adding, “Canada only works as a state.” He went on to say that adding Canada to the United States would make the country “visually” impressive.
It was against this backdrop that The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump recently contacted House Speaker Mike Johnson to request that Congress send over a painting of James Polk, the nation’s 11th president, to be displayed at the White House.
And why, pray tell, would the president want a Polk portrait? Because, as the Journal’s article noted, he “oversaw the largest expansion of U.S. territory in history.” (Don’t laugh, but I continue to think Team Trump’s interest in wall décor is an angle worth watching in the second term.)
So, let’s take stock. The White House has directed the Pentagon to draw up options to increase the American troop presence in Panama. Trump now expects to annex Greenland and has talked about the possibility of deploying troops to the island. The president still wants to annex Canada. He’s also talked at length about taking over the Gaza Strip. And did I mention that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently raised the prospect of unilateral military strikes in Mexico? Because that reportedly happened, too. To the extent that the White House cares about public attitudes, the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 60% of Americans oppose taking control of the Panama Canal, 68% oppose territorial U.S. expansion, 69% oppose annexing Greenland, 80% oppose making Canada a state, and 84% oppose Trump’s Gaza plan. (Click the link for more information on the poll’s methodology and margin of error. Or put another way, Americans have seen and heard the president’s imperialistic vision — and most of the country just isn’t buying it. To reiterate a point from last month, if you voted for Trump because you expected foreign policy restraint, I have some awful news for you.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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