GOP Senators had been left bewildered after President-elect Donald Trump delivered a weird hour-long rant on Tuesday about annexing Greenland and the Panama Canal.
Two high Senate Republicans voiced their confusion and uncertainty as to what Trump meant when he mentioned he needed to accumulate Greenland and the Panama Canal throughout his press convention.
Since then, Trump made a submit on Fact Social displaying a map of Canada and the USA overlaid with the American flag with the caption, “Oh Canada!” He made one other submit with the identical map and the phrases “UNITED STATES” protecting each nations.
However his fellow Republicans don’t know what to make of it.
“I expect to hear more about it in the days ahead and, obviously, there are a number of issues that he’s raised that we’ll get a chance to consider,” mentioned Senate Majority Chief John Thune of South Dakota.
In response to CNN, Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso of Wyoming wouldn’t reply whether or not he was involved about Trump’s choice to not rule out utilizing navy drive to grab management of Greenland and the Panama Canal.
“We’ll see if he brings it up for our discussions tonight,” he mentioned, referring to a Wednesday night time assembly between Trump and Senate Republicans to debate legislative technique in his second time period.
Former GOP Home Speaker Newt Gingrich informed The Hill that Trump would possibly simply be attempting to challenge energy in his pursuit of Greenland, the Panama Canal, and now Canada.
“I think Trump, he’s trying to project a sense of American power and of American engagement. You have all this talk about he’s somehow going to be an isolationist, except he’s deeply engaged in Greenland, he’s deeply engaged [in] a bunch of other things,” he mentioned.
As if annexing Greenland by navy drive weren’t unsettling sufficient, Trump has additionally mentioned he desires to rename the Gulf of Mexico because the “Gulf of America.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, praised this concept as “off to a GREAT begin!”
In the meantime, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen mentioned Tuesday that the Danish Island is “not for sale,” echoing an analogous assertion from Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede.
As Trump heads into his assembly, throughout which he’ll probably strain Republican lawmakers to help his far-right agenda, one level of rivalry stays. Some Republicans are unsure whether or not they need to help a single omnibus invoice—which might make for greater stakes and could be extra prone to fail—or persuade Trump that it will be in his finest curiosity to interrupt up his “one big, beautiful bill” into smaller items of laws.
I assume we’ll see if he can push them over the sting.
