Trump, Musk and friends have been gearing up for their big White House takeover, but it seems those well-manicured lawns aren’t the only things they’ve got their eyes on – the rest of the world should watch out…
13:21, 08 Jan 2025Updated 13:23, 08 Jan 2025
America will be huge, massive (Image: AP)
Donald Trump is trying to take over the world, or at least it seems he would like to. The controversial character is set to be sworn in on January 20, and ahead of him formally taking the key to the Oval Office, has been spewing rhetoric about what he intends to achieve.
Trump’s inauguration comes at an unsettled time around the world. Across the globe, regional and powers have been making troubling attempts to expand their influence – either through soft control, or more old fashioned land grabs. Vladimir Putin is deep inside Ukraine, Benjamin Netanyahu is claiming he’s ‘reshaping the Middle East’ and China wants to tell the world it has its claws firmly in Taiwan.
Now, after decades of being referred to as having a ‘soft-power empire’ it seems the inbound leader of the US and his close allies have started thinking along the same lines, using his voice to to make comments – some seemingly jokes, others not – to tell the world which places he would like to hoist the the Star-Spangled Banner over. Enter the era of the American imperial dream.
Now, the Daily Star can reveal what this new world order will look like if all of Trump and pals’ expansionist goals, both serious and in jest, were to come into effect.
Behold, the new American Empire, as imagined by Trump and chums (Image: Getty)
Perhaps the most startling, was the 45th and 47th President’s comments about both Greenland and offshore tax haven Panama. He was speaking from Mar-a-Lago, Florida, about his policies heading into the White House, when he was asked if he could assure the world that he wouldn’t use military force to or economic coercion to effectively take Greenland and Panama.
To this, Trump said: “No, I can’t assure you on either of those two.
“But, I can say this, we need them for economic security.” His words come after previous comments that US ownership of Greenland was an “absolute necessity” for “purposes of national security and freedom throughout the world”.
Unsurprisingly, it has not been met fondly by Greenlanders.
“Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale,” its prime minister Mute Egede said. “We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”
But Trump may have even further designs on the world. Trump has often made ‘jokes’ about annexing Canada, writing on social media recently: “Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State. The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat”.
It seems Trump and chums have been taking a few notes on the playbook of a few other worldleaders (Image: AP)
Speaking from Mar-a-Lago, Trump later elaborated: “You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security. Canada and the United States: that would be really something,” before being asked if he would use military force to take Canada, top which he said: “No, economic force.”
Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau simply said there wasn’t “a snowball’s chance in hell”.
Trump’s private sector right hand man Musk has been outspoken on the idea of the great American expansion too, but his eyes have drifted across the Atlantic and onto poor old Blighty. That’s right, Musk looks determined to sink his claws into the fabric of Britain, and amid rumours of interest in Liverpool FC and getting King Charles to oust Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, has even asked whether the US “should liberate” the people of the UK from their “tyrannical government”. At the time of writing, 58% of people said ‘yes’.
He later added that Britain becoming a new state of the US in a similar way proposed by Trump for Canada was “not a bad idea”.
Trump gave a news conference at Mar-a-Lago(Image: AP)
Trump had one more wild expansionist plan a little closer to home, one that seems to have limited economic benefit. He wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico, the “Gulf of America.” Why? “Because it’s ours.” In what way? Because he reckons the US does “most work” there.
Congresswoman and ally Marjorie Taylor Greene later went into more detail, saying in a statement: ““The American people are footing the bill to protect and secure the maritime waterways for commerce to be conducted. Our U.S. armed forces protect the area from any military threats from foreign countries.
“It’s our gulf. The rightful name is the Gulf of America and it’s what the entire world should refer to it as.”