<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>First it was Canada, then the Panama Canal. Now, Donald Trump again wants Greenland.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The US president-elect is renewing unsuccessful calls he made during his first term for the US to buy Greenland from Denmark, adding to the list of allied countries with which he's picking fights even before taking office on January 20.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In a Sunday announcement naming his ambassador to Denmark, Trump wrote that, "For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity."</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/former-president-bill-clinton-is-in-the-hospital-after-developing-a-fever-spokesperson-says/a4ffd068-29cc-4768-be3b-507b19d471b8" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Former President Bill Clinton is in the hospital after developing a fever, spokesperson says</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump again having designs on Greenland comes after the president-elect suggested over the weekend that the US could retake control of the Panama Canal if something isn't done to ease rising shipping costs required for using the waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He's also been suggesting that Canada become the 51st US state and referred to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as "governor" of the "Great State of Canada."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, said Trump tweaking friendly countries harkens back to an aggressive style he used during his days in business.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/donald-trump-calls-to-buy-greenland-after-panama-canada-statements/97163889-ca01-40d2-bfb6-424d2b8418f0" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/matt-gaetz-ethics-report-accuses-us-politician-paying-for-sex-sleeping-with-underage-girl/a0c54532-59c4-4906-9a72-964cc16685d9" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Report accuses key Trump backer of sex with 17-year-old girl</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"You ask something unreasonable and it's more likely you can get something less unreasonable," said Farnsworth, who is also author of the book "Presidential Communication and Character."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Greenland, the world's largest island, sits between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. It is 80 per cent covered by an ice sheet and is home to a large US military base. It gained home rule from Denmark in 1979 and its head of government, Múte Bourup Egede, suggested that Trump's latest calls for US control would be as meaningless as those made in his first term.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale," he said in a statement. "We must not lose our years-long fight for freedom."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/luigi-mangione-pleads-not-guilty-state-murder-united-healthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-death/e475c727-d87b-4568-abca-7e140304c2b8" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Mangione pleads not guilty to United Healthcare CEO's murder</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Danish Prime Minister's Office said in its own statement that the government is "looking forward to welcoming the new American ambassador. And the government is looking forward to working with the new administration."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"In a complex security political situation as the one we currently experience, transatlantic cooperation is crucial," the statement said. It noted that it had no comment on Greenland except for it "not being for sale, but open for cooperation."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump canceled a 2019 visit to Denmark after his offer to buy Greenland was rejected by Copenhagen, and ultimately came to nothing.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He also suggested Sunday that the US is getting "ripped off" at the Panama Canal.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America, in full, quickly and without question," he said.</span></div></div><div class="styles__Wrapper-sc-2o34ro-0 cmwkBV"><div class="styles__Column-sc-2o34ro-3 jJDKrX"><a href="/content/2024/11/12/09/47/us-election-all-the-people-donald-trump-second-administration-in-photos"><img alt="Trump appointments" sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 636px, (min-width: 768px) 396px, 100vw" src="https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/6fYnOAOCCAa1y-o6y47tD-85DwY=/396x223/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F3eb51c93-7e95-4073-9905-8869555ff026" srcset="https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/6fYnOAOCCAa1y-o6y47tD-85DwY=/396x223/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F3eb51c93-7e95-4073-9905-8869555ff026 396w, https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/MTksw4ThxnWYLjxCX4Haff2ARuM=/636x358/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F3eb51c93-7e95-4073-9905-8869555ff026 636w"/></a></div><div class="styles__Column-sc-2o34ro-3 jJDKrX"><div class="styles__Headline-sc-2o34ro-4 hpbOlz">Trump announces flood of new appointments to Pentagon and DOGE </div><div class="styles__Button-sc-2o34ro-1 eBjlmW"><a class="styles__ButtonLink-sc-2o34ro-2 hqpklJ" href="/content/2024/11/12/09/47/us-election-all-the-people-donald-trump-second-administration-in-photos">View Gallery</a></div></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Panama President José Raúl Mulino responded in a video that "every square metre of the canal belongs to Panama and will continue to," but Trump fired back on his social media site, "We'll see about that!"</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The president-elect also posted a picture of a US flag planted in the canal zone under the phrase, "Welcome to the United States Canal!"</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The United States built the canal in the early 1900s but relinquished control to </span><a href="https://www.state.gov/countries-areas/panama/" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><span>Panama</span></a><span> on December 31, 1999, under a treaty signed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The canal depends on reservoirs that were hit by 2023 droughts that forced it to substantially reduce the number of daily slots for crossing ships. With fewer ships, administrators also increased the fees that shippers are charged to reserve slots to use the canal.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Greenland and Panama flareups followed Trump recently posting that "Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State" and offering an image of himself superimposed on a mountaintop surveying surrounding territory next to a Canadian flag.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trudeau suggested that Trump was joking about annexing his country, but the pair met recently at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to discuss Trump's threats to impose a 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Canada is not going to become part of the United States, but Trump's comments are more about leveraging what he says to get concessions from Canada by putting Canada off balance, particularly given the precarious current political environment in Canada," Farnsworth said. "Maybe claim a win on trade concessions, a tighter border or other things."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He said the situation is similar with Greenland.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"What Trump wants is a win," Farnsworth said. "And even if the American flag doesn't raise over Greenland, Europeans may be more willing to say yes to something else because of the pressure."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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