Trump is ‘100% serious’ about acquiring Greenland, Panama Canal: sources

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Donald Trump is “100% serious’’ about wanting to acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal as US territory, according to sources close to the president-elect — adding he looked into Greenland in his first term.

Over the weekend, Trump, 78, publicly floated the idea of US “ownership and control of Greenland” and taking back the Panama Canal because of its “ridiculous fees” for American ships.

Trump also has been referring to Canada for weeks as a prospective “state” with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as its “governor,” although that’s just a taunt, sources said.

President-elect Donald Trump is “100% serious” about acquiring Greenland and the Panama Canal, say sources close to him. REUTERS

But he’s not kidding when it comes to Greenland and the canal as part of his America-first strategy to counter China and Russia, sources said.

“The president is 100% serious,” a source close to Trump confirmed.

White House and Treasury Department officials in Trump’s first administration even went so far as to closely study how to negotiate and fund a takeover of Greenland, the world’s largest island, two first-term Trump sources told The Post.

A practical game-plan for negotiations to win over semi-autonomous Greenland’s 56,000 mostly Inuit residents was developed during Trump’s final year in office, sources said.

The move came after a more thinly crafted concept was floated and shot down by Danish and Greenlandic officials in 2019. Greenland has its own goverment but is part of Denmark.

The basic idea at the end of Trump’s first term was — and likely still is — to first win over the relatively poor residents of Greenland, who would then have their decision ratified by Copenhagen ahead of a handover, sources said.

That transfer of power would likely come in the form of a compact of free association similar to US relations with the nominally independent Pacific island nations of Palau, the Marshall Island and Micronesia.

“What we were trying to find at the end of the first Trump term was a three-way win-win-win deal,” former Treasury Department official Thomas Dans told The Post.

“We were moving quickly on these things up until the final days. Our hope was the Biden administration would pick up on this,” Dans said. “We were poised to do something.”

Dans, who has a family history with Greenland dating to his grandfather’s deployment there during World War II, said, “What was missing in the first [consideration of acquiring Greenland in 2019] was a real understanding of just the Greenlanders’ position within the Kingdom of Denmark.

“They’ve already been granted in Denmark’s 2009 Greenland Self-Government Act a recognition of their right to self-determination and defined path to independence,” Dans said, meaning that the residents hold the key to any change in status.

“It’s almost like an indenture of old, where the Greenlanders remain reliant on an economic subsidy that Denmark sends them and essentially have to bootstrap their way to a new future. They’re asset-rich and cash-poor — kind of frozen in place,” Dans said.

A cargo ship and tugboat moving through the Cocoli Locks at the Panama Canal in August help show how vital the waterway is. AFP via Getty Images

Financing the early stages of an acquisition would not necessarily require congressional approval, though Trump’s Republican allies will control both chambers of Congress next year.

“Treasury has a lot of authorities that it can bring to act on things like this,” said Dans, who has played an important role in soft diplomacy, including bringing one of Greenland’s top social media influencers to Trump’s election-night watch party in West Palm Beach.

“This is President Trump’s decision. I think from what he said yesterday, he understands the importance.”

Another first-term Trump official who worked on planning said, “It’s not a wild thing,” noting, “We purchased Alaska [from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million].

“People are acting like its a crazy thing, and it’s not at all,” said the former official, who noted that buying Alaska was at the time mockingly regarded as “Seward’s Folly,” in reference to then-Secretary of State William Seward, before the 49th state’s strategic position and energy resources became apparent.

“Everything’s for sale for the right price,” the source said.

“[Trump] is definitely not trolling,” said a different source. “[He] is signaling the serious [nature] and the gravity of what it means to have an ambitious America and what it means to have leadership on stage.

“In my conversations with incoming and former national security officials, this is a direct message to China,” that source added.

The Panama Canal was constructed by the US government but was given to Panama in 1979. Anadolu via Getty Images

Trump noted his concern about the Panama Canal falling into the “wrong hands” — particularly China’s — in his weekend commentary. He also mentioned “national security” considerations involving the large Arctic island of Greenland, which is militarily important for radar and abuts shipping lanes in the North Atlantic.

The United States invaded Panama in 1989 and toppled its authoritarian leader Manuel Noriega in part over concern about the US-built canal, which America controlled until President Jimmy Carter returned the Canal Zone to Panama in 1979.

The canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans is governed by the Republic of Panama, and a Neutrality Treaty between the US and Panama assures that the canal remains neutral for all countries with no discriminatory tolls.

The US does still have the right, under the treaty, to exert military force if it deems the canal to be under threat of no longer being neutral.

Yleem Poblete, an assistant secretary of state during Trump’s first term, hailed the president-elect’s head-turning commentary as part of a “welcome change” in renewing America’s focus on the Western Hemisphere.

“His recent comments reflect a clear understanding of the threats and opportunities in the broader Americas and his vision to project US. leadership to usher in a new era of American greatness and hemispheric security and prosperity,” Poblete said.

Icebergs float behind the town of Kulusuk in Greenland, which Trump reportedly wants to take over. AFP via Getty Images

The State Department has expressed concern over China collaborating with Russia to gain more access to the Arctic for natural resources and geopolitical expansion.

There’s some historical precedent for the theorized transfer of Greenland to the US: Denmark in 1917 sold the US Virgin Islands to America for $25 million.

A source close to Trump’s nerve center in Palm Beach said the president-elect “is of the belief that empires that don’t grow start to fail.

“He is a student of history, and this is one of the schools of thought,” the source said. “He really favors past presidents who were expansionist on the continent.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s regime has made Trump focus on the US’s international strength. AP

Although Trump’s interest in the territorial acquisitions is serious, if neither Denmark nor Panama will part with their land, it’s possible the US proposals will morph into what amounts to a bargaining tactic that could reduce canal fees or allow for a greater US military role in Greenland, sources noted.

“I don’t think he’s going to start conquering land, but sometimes you push the limit crazy far to end up where you actually hope to get,” the Palm Beach source said.

Trump’s foreign policy goals almost immediately got cold responses from the leaders of Greenland and Panama, throwing cold water on his ideas.

Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino, posted a video declaring, “Every square meter of the canal belongs to Panama and will continue to.”

Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede wrote online, “Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”

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