Grassroots/Hank Kalet

America First Imperialism

I want to think it’s a joke. An ad-lib. But it wasn’t the first time he said it.

Greenland. The Panama Canal. Canada. Renaming the Gulf of Mexico. Annexation of foreign lands. Military force.

During what The New York Times described as “a rambling, hourlong news conference” Jan. 7, then President-elect Donald Trump described Greenland and the Panama Canal as vital to American interests and that they should be in U.S. possession. He also talked about annexing Canada, and refused to rule out military force to achieve his expansionist goals.

“We need them for economic security — the Panama Canal was built for our military,” he said. Asked again if he would rule out the use of military force, he said: “I’m not going to commit to that. You might have to do something.”

The threats were rebuffed clearly and firmly by Denmark and Greenland, by Panama, and by Canada. Many in the foreign policy establishment sought to contextualize the remarks as a negotiating ploy or as Trump being Trump.

These responses, however, fail to capture the truly dangerous nature of what Trump said underplay the threat this new Trump presidency poses.

Trump is and always has been a bully. He uses whatever power he has at his disposal. It is how he operated in business and how he managed his first term in office. He has no regard for norms or rules (they’re for suckers), and views every relationship as transactional. And he is uniquely and dangerously American.

Expansionism and empire building are in our DNA, beginning with the earliest wars against indigenous North Americans and encompassing the westward expansion and numerous foreign adventures. While annexing territory has been off the table for decades, our most recent wars — in Iraq and Afghanistan — and much of our foreign policy have been focused on creating friendly client states around the globe.

What Trump is suggesting, in broad strokes, is not new. And, given his narrow win and lack of a mandate, it would seem politically foolish.

So why does he keep raising these scenarios?

Maggie Haberman of The New York Times told Anderson Cooper that the three “goals” needed to be addressed separately, that taking over Greenland and Panama have been “floated for decades,” mostly by the right. His “chatter about Canada” was “clearly much more of a troll” and a “dominance play.”

Zeeshan Aleem, writing for MSNBC, mined the same rhetorical space. He called Trump a “pure showman.”

Claiming he wants to rename the Gulf as he threatens Mexico with tariffs is culture war bait that changes nothing — but it gives Trump an easy way to beat his chest and scratch the itch of the chauvinist without actually doing anything meaningful.

But Trump is more than just showman, as he proved during his first term, and his “distractions,” his efforts to “flood the information zone” are more than just misdirections or a ploy. We consistently underestimate who he is and how he sees his role in the White House. We are afraid to take him at his word, to fully engage with the danger he poses.

Trump is a wannabe-autocrat, a fascist. His models are Vladimir Putin in Russia and Viktor Orban in Hungary. And he’s said as much.

He plans to be a dictator on Day One and launch what would be the largest deportation program in our history. Can he do it? The logistics will make it difficult, but actually getting it done is less important than the message it sends.

He plans to use libel laws and other legal means to cow the press. Will it work? It already has, as the behavior of the Washington Post and L.A. Times over the last few months attests.

Trump and his allies in Congress have signaled that they will use the IRS, the police and military, and other tools of power to clamp down on protest, to silence critics.

This imperial, expansionist rhetoric is part and parcel of this. America is exceptional, Trump says. Our needs are paramount, he says. We are being cheated, he says. America First demands this. All of this is part of the same argument.

Ignoring these connections, pretending they are just Trump being Trump only makes the threat worse. This is not a joke.

Hank Kalet is a poet, essayist and journalist in New Jersey. He teaches journalism at Rutgers University. Email: hankkalet@gmail.com; Facebook.com/hank.kalet; Instagram, @kaletwrites; X (Twitter), @newspoet41; Substack, hankkalet.substack.com.

From The Progressive Populist, February 1, 2025

Populist.com