Pressure on China and pure 'trolling': Why Trump is pushing an expansionist agenda

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

79% : This person added that Trump also enjoys the way the effort gets people spun up.
60% : Greenland is an island Trump very much desires.
51% : The first person familiar with the discussions told NBC News Trump first expressed interest in changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico last month and that the president-elect was fixated on the idea, though people close to him do not believe he can do much about the gulf.
47% : "When it comes to the Panama Canal, Trump has framed his own focus on U.S. ships being "overcharged" to use the waterway, as he said Tuesday, while he believes Chinese ships are getting preferential treatment.
45% : And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., announced moments after Trump called to rename the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America" on Tuesday that she would introduce legislation in the House to do so.
41% : Acquiring the Panama Canal falls into the category of something Trump may want but is also using as an economic pressure campaign.
41% : "If Trump attempts to operationalize the threats made to Panama, Canada and Greenland ... it's going to put any ambassador in the most difficult position I can conceive of: telling a treaty ally your boss plans to take their sovereign homeland," Feeley said.Trump and his allies have pointed to national security as the rationale for why the U.S. should acquire Greenland, with Trump posting on his Truth Social platform last month that American "ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity."
41% : "Trump's going to say, 'Yeah, well I renamed it the Gulf of America.
39% : Trump has pushed for the United States to take control of Greenland, the Panama Canal and Canada.
39% : And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday that he would "agree to working with Donald Trump on renaming the Gulf of Mexico, only if he first agrees to work with us on an actual plan to lower costs for Americans.
38% : Leila Register / NBC News; Getty ImagesIn the final weeks before Donald Trump returns to the White House, the focus of his public remarks has not been about the confirmations of his Cabinet picks or on key parts of his campaign agenda like mass deportations or lowering prices.
38% : At his news conference Tuesday, Trump said he would use "economic force" to merge Canada with the United States, describing the northern border as an "artificially drawn line."
38% : Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., plans to introduce a bill Thursday that would allow Trump to "enter into negotiations for the reacquisition of the Panama Canal."
37% : Coupled with calls from Elon Musk, the world's richest man and Trump's sidekick, to replace leadership in the United Kingdom and Germany, Trump is putting immense pressure on some of America's closest allies before he even takes office.
35% : Yet, this person said, Trump believes his trolling could get some policies to cut his way and help with negotiations.
34% : In recent days, Trump has repeatedly pushed the idea that he will take over Greenland from Denmark, reclaim the Panama Canal after the United States returned it to the Panamanian government decades ago and absorb Canada into the United States.
34% : But John Bolton, a former Trump national security adviser who has since broken with him, told NBC News in an interview that while he served under Trump he didn't hear any talk of acquiring the Panama Canal (or making Canada the 51st state.)
34% : "Let's say somehow Donald Trump buys Greenland and renames [the Gulf of Mexico] the Gulf of America," this person said.
31% : Trump said he is keeping the option of using the military to gain control of Greenland and the Panama Canal on the table while saying he will exert "economic force" to pressure Canada to join the United States.
30% : Instead, Trump -- who has criticized U.S. military involvement in other countries -- is advocating for America to gain more global territory, including by force, if necessary.
23% : A person familiar with the discussions said Trump has never given up on acquiring Greenland, which he tried to purchase during his first term for defense reasons and was rebuffed.
21% : "But Rufus Gifford, the ambassador to Denmark in the Obama administration and finance chair of Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign, said gaining Greenland would not be anywhere near as simple as Trump may make it seem.
18% : "Trump has mocked the Canadian government for weeks after he met with Trudeau at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home, to discuss the potential for tariffs of 25% on Canadian goods imported into the United States.
10% : Trump also said he long believed Carter was mistaken to have negotiated treaties that turned over control of the canal to Panama.
2% : John D. Feeley, who was the U.S. ambassador to Panama under former President Barack Obama and Trump before he resigned over policy disagreements with Trump, said Trump's public push will put incoming ambassadors behind the eight ball.

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