Trump flashes newfound imperialist streak in White House return

US President Donald Trump has discovered a new panacea for the problems of the world: American imperialism.

His surprise proposition to take control of the ravaged Gaza Strip was just the latest signal that his new foreign policy doctrine revolves around expanding the US footprint across the globe.

Trump has only been back in office for 17 days. In that time, he’s called for Canada to become the 51st US state, urged Denmark to sell Greenland and said the US needs to retake the Panama Canal. 

And he hasn’t ruled out using military force to advance his aims. When asked about deploying troops to secure the hotly contested Middle East territory or the critical waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Trump said he’d consider whatever was necessary.

It’s not always simple to discern what part of Trump’s plans represent serious policy and how much is purely intended to provoke a response. For example, overnight Trump aides dialed back the suggestion that the US would “own” the Gaza Strip.

The expansionist posturing is a relatively new feature of his second term — Greenland was the only territory he publicly mused about annexing during his first stint in the White House — and at face value his newfound zeal is incongruent with the “America First,” isolationist brand of geopolitics that he rode to the presidency twice. 

That could make the push a tough sell at home, where voters rallied behind Trump in no small part thanks to his promise to keep the US out of foreign entanglements. 

But the president is running a playbook familiar to strongmen across the globe. Trump has long cast himself as part of that fraternity, expressing admiration for leaders who have tightened their grip on power by threatening — or pursuing — political and economic expansionism.

The club includes Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who has waged a bloody incursion into Ukraine, China’s Xi Jinping, who led a crackdown in Hong Kong and has spoken about his intentions toward Taiwan. 

Trump admires Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman and his country’s sovereign wealth fund so much so that earlier this week the Republican signed an executive order calling on the US to develop its own. 

“The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation — one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations, and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons,” Trump said in his inaugural address.

Other leaders are taking notice. Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro released a group of detained Americans and said he would begin accepting deportation flights of migrants. Canada and Mexico announced steps to increase border security after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on exports to the US. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to criticise Trump’s Gaza proposal, shifting awkwardly across from Trump as he made the declaration, despite the possibility it could further inflame tensions with the Arab world.

“Contrast what Trump said yesterday and what have been related actions by his administration with the utter incompetence and fecklessness of the previous administration,” Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said Wednesday on Bloomberg Television. 

Any takers?

Still, if actual expansion is Trump’s goal, he hasn’t found many takers.

Denmark has refused to entertain the notion of selling Greenland. Panama has said it won’t give up the canal. 

Trump’s frequent needling of Canada — including dubbing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the country’s “governor” in a nod to his offer to absorb the country as a state — has further curdled relations with Canadians already upset over his threatened tariffs.

And Trump’s shocking declaration alongside Netanyahu on Tuesday that the US wanted to take permanent control of the 25-mile long Gaza Strip to develop a “Riviera of the Middle East” was broadly denounced by some of the president’s closest allies across the Arab world.

Saudi Arabia called it an “infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.” Hamas, labeled a terrorist organisation by the US and European Union and responsible for the October 7 attack against Israel that precipitated the war, called Trump’s comments “a recipe for creating chaos and tension.” So did the Palestinian Authority, which controls parts of the West Bank.

Within the White House, some conceded a takeover of Gaza was a longshot. While the idea of a US presence had been discussed in private channels, there was no expectation Trump would speak about the proposal publicly, according to a person familiar with the internal deliberations.

But Trump’s supporters defended the ploy as a tactic that had worked for the president before: going big with a plan or idea to entice people to the table, particularly when confronted with decade-long quagmires that have no ordinary solutions.

Trump has taken a similar approach to Ukraine, suggesting that Kyiv should be willing to promise US critical mineral deposits in exchange for continuing aid and ultimately consider ceding territory as part of a peace deal. 

While both notions fly in the face of traditional expectations around alliances and democratic values, they could speed negotiations to end the bloody conflict with Putin. One adviser pointed to Trump’s frequent refrain that the US should have extracted oil in exchange for toppling Iraq’s Saddam Hussein as colouring his outlook.

In the Middle East, those familiar with Trump’s thinking say the president believes he has leverage with Netanyahu and Arab nations, alike. The US sends billions of dollars worth of weaponry to Israel and has deterred large-scale Iranian attacks on the Middle East’s only democracy. 

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and others in the region have plans to make it more of a tourist destination. Saudi Arabia has its Vision 2030 programme, a plan to diversify the economy and attract investment, including from the United States. 

But dreams of a reinvigorated Middle East have often collided with harsh realities. Trump’s proposal, in addition to carrying massive security and redevelopment costs, risks further inflaming the humanitarian crisis and permanently displacing around two million Palestinians.

Trump’s gamble is that his proposals become quickly dismissed as outlandish and impractical, providing diminishing returns at the negotiating table. Already, markets are beginning to shrug at his threats to impose more tariffs, with traders increasingly skeptical that he’s willing to follow through. 

But with Trump, doubts often have a way of steeling his resolve.

“This is an out-of-the-box idea. That’s who President Trump is,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday. “That’s why the American people elected him.”