bolded comments:
CNN
President-elect Donald Trump appears to be entertaining an American territorial expansion that, if hes serious, would rival the Louisiana Purchase or the deal that netted Alaska from Russia.
In the past week, hes taunted Canadian officials by suggesting the US could absorb its northern neighbor and make it the 51st state. He threatened to take over the Panama Canal, the US-made waterway controlled for a quarter century by its Central American namesake. And on Sunday, he resurfaced his first-term desire to obtain Greenland, a Danish territory he has long eyed.
With Trump, the differences between serious policy proposals and rhetorical flourishes intended to stoke media attention or energize his base are not always clear. At other times, his provocations have appeared to be the opening salvos in his attempts at dealmaking.
Whats the history of the Panama Canal, and why is Trump threatening to retake control of it? Indeed, when Trump vocalized his threat to take back the Panama Canal this weekend, he did so with an out for the country to avoid his wrath: lower fees on American ships that utilize the passageway to travel between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. So to the officials of Panama, please be guided accordingly, he warned on Sunday during remarks to conservative activists in Arizona.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/23/politics/trump-us-expansion-panama-canada-greenland/index.html