Why does Trump want Greenland and the Panama Canal so badly? One reason may surprise you

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

61% : Over the years, Trump said, China has virtually taken control of the strategic waterway, giving Beijing a huge economic and military advantage over Washington.
59% : "Trump didn't discover Greenland," Bolton, who was also Trump's first National Security Adviser, said in an interview.
55% : Trump has had his eyes on the massive but remote arctic island since his first term.
52% : "We need them for economic security," Trump said at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.
51% : ""China is running the Panama Canal," Trump said, adding that it "makes a lot of money from one of the most profitable structures ever built, because you have ships lined up back to Florida, frankly, and they just keep going through and the numbers are staggering, half a million to a million dollars a ship.
46% : ""You look at you don't even need binoculars," Trump added.
44% : "Greenland: the key to the mythical Northwest PassageWhen it comes to Greenland, Trump said he thinks Denmark "should give it up, because we need it for national security.
39% : The short answer is that Trump is jockeying for geopolitical supremacy over what he believes are an expansionist-minded China and Russia, two former top Trump national security aides told USA TODAY.
39% : On Tuesday, Trump went even further, refusing to rule out either military or economic coercion when it comes to taking control of the canal, which is owned and operated by Panama, and Greenland, a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.
33% : "Trump didn't mention it, but the reason for the ship backlog is, again, climate change.
33% : "So it was a political statement in 1980 and I think Trump's trying to resurrect the feelings that existed when the canal was first returned to Panama."
29% : They charge more for our Navy than they charge for navies of other countries," Trump said Tuesday.Trump also claimed that the biggest beneficiary of that is China, which he said, "is basically taking it over.
6% : The Panama Canal: 'China is basically taking it over'On Tuesday, Trump criticized former President Jimmy Carter for ceding control of the Panama Canal to the Panamanian government even though the U.S. spent vast sums of money and manpower to build the 51-mile waterway out of a mosquito-infested swamp.

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