President-elect Donald Trump had a far-reaching Christmas wish this year: sovereignty over Canada, Greenland and parts of Panama.
Across more than 40 posts to his Truth Social platform on Christmas Day – most of which came over the span of an hour – the president-elect mused about American control of three different allies. He wrapped the sentiments up in one post:
“Merry Christmas to all, including to the wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal,” Trump wrote in one post, falsely claiming the canal’s construction took 38,000 American lives. A 2023 BBC fact check pegged the true toll at hundreds.
The president-elect added holiday salutations for “Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada,” vowing lower taxes and a business boom “if Canada was to become our 51st State.”
Capping off the post, Trump wished a Merry Christmas to “the people of Greenland, which is needed by the United States for National Security purposes.” Greenland, a Danish territory, has long been the subject of Trump’s Manifest Destiny redux fantasies.
The post marks an escalation of Trump’s rhetoric about the regions, weaving together Trump’s recent grievances over canal fees, frequent promises to take the Danish territory, and jabs at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau into a single desire.
Last weekend, Trump shared plans on Truth Social to take over the shipping lane, adding that Panama would be forced to “return” the canal if it didn’t meet his demands.
In a statement later on Christmas naming Kevin Marino Cabrera as the ambassador to Panama, Trump accused the nation of “ripping us off on the Panama Canal.” He also shared articles endorsing his Panama plan from the New York Post and conservative blogger Nick Adams.
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Greenland got the Christmas treatment too, after Trump’s Sunday claim that American sovereignty over the island was an “absolute necessity.”
Trump has discussed taking the island since at least 2019, but ramped up discussions in previous days, ruffling feathers in Europe. Greenland’s prime minister condemned Trump’s suggestion on Monday.
“Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom,” Prime Minister Mute Egede said in a statement, per Reuters.
In addition to floating Canada’s annexation, Trump dipped his toe into the country’s political realm, claiming to have pushed hockey player Wayne Gretsky to challenge Prime Minister Trudeau while again dreaming of Canadian statehood.
Beyond territorial expansion, Trump had one other Christmas wish: congressional obedience.
After a bruising budget battle last week tested the limits of Trump’s influence in the GOP’s congressional delegation, Trump shared an article from Axios alleging House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., was on board with raising the debt ceiling, a Trump-pushed budget inclusion which fell apart.
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Trump had a message for the upper chamber, too.
Apparently frustrated by the lack of progress toward confirming some of his most controversial cabinet picks, Trump attempted to shore up FBI director nominee Kash Patel and Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth’s chances, broadcasting op-eds cheering on the picks to his page.
It wasn’t all well wishes this Christmas from Trump. The president-elect expressed fury at President Joe Biden’s lame-duck decision to commute the sentences of all but three federal death row inmates in another post.
“I refuse to wish a Merry Christmas to those lucky “souls” but, instead, will say, GO TO HELL!,” Trump wrote, incorrectly claiming Biden gave the 37 inmates a “pardon.”
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