President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday he plans to order “very serious tariffs” against Canada and Mexico — and that he will rechristen the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
Canada is subsidized to the tune of about $200 billion a year, plus other things. They don’t essentially have a military. They have a very small military. They rely on our military. It’s all fine, but they got to pay for that,” Trump said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla.
“I have so many great friends. One of them is the great one, [hockey player] Wayne Gretzky. I said, ‘Run for prime minister. You’ll win. It’ll take two seconds.’ But he said, ‘Well, am I going to run for prime minister or governor?’”
Trump has for weeks jokingly suggested that Canada become the 51st state, while more seriously pressing for the US to acquire Greenland from Denmark and suggesting the US may need to reassert control of the Panama Canal, topics he also revisited in his remarks.
“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring. That covers a lot of territory, the Gulf of America. What a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate,” Trump declared. “Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country. They can stop them, and we’re going to put very serious tariffs on Mexico and Canada, because Canada, they come through Canada too, and the drugs that are coming through are at record numbers.”
Trump threatened tariffs against Canada and Mexico shortly after winning the Nov. 5 election, citing illegal immigration and illicit fentanyl imports. Some observers speculated that he was making the threat as a bargaining tactic, and the leaders of both countries quickly pledged to work with the incoming commander in chief.
The president-elect spoke as his son, Donald Trump Jr., visited Greenland as part of his attempt to woo the island’s 56,000 residents to break with Denmark and join the United States.
“People really don’t even know if Denmark has an illegal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up, because we need it for national security,” Trump said at the press conference.
“That’s for the free world. I’m talking about protecting the free world. You look at you don’t even need binoculars. You look outside. You have China ships all over the place. You have Russian ships all over the place. We’re not letting that happen… The people are going to probably vote for independence or to come into the United States.”
Trump threatened to “tariff Denmark at a very high level” if Copenhagen intervened.
He also railed against alleged Chinese influence in the Panama Canal, claiming “China’s running the Panama Canal” and that he might use “economic force” to reacquire the US-build canal, which was returned to the Central American country’s control in 1979.
Trump also said he seriously thought that Canada merging with the US would be a good idea — though people close to him have interpreted such talk as much less serious than his remarks about Greenland and the Panama Canal.
“Canada and the United States, that would really be something,” Trump mused at the press conference. “You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security.”
