What’s in a name?
Photographer: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images
If Trump Makes Aggression Normal, Putin and Xi Win
The US president may just be talking tough on Panama, Canada and Greenland, but even so he threatens the order that led to American global dominance.
President Donald Trump might not actually grab Greenland by force. Perhaps he won’t send the Marines into Panama to reclaim control of the canal, or deploy the 82nd Airborne Division to take ownership of the Gaza Strip. No matter how much Trump enjoys taunting “Governor” Justin Trudeau, he likely won’t force Canada to become the 51st state. Trump may not consummate the carnival of American aggrandizement he has been talking about. But if that sounds reassuring, it’s remarkable that it needs to be said.
Trump has made territorial expansion a defining theme of his presidency. The US, he declared in his second inaugural, “will once again consider itself a growing nation” that “expands our territory” and “carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons.” More striking still, he has refused to rule out the use of economic or military pressure to enlarge America’s frontiers.