Will he pull the trigger? I have to admit, I never saw this one coming. Of all the things I imagined Donald Trump doing in a second term, invading Panama and Greenland wasn’t one of them. But here we are at least contemplating it.
Well, it is one option being considered, even if it is the least likely. And I like that they are exploring options. Both places are vital to U.S. national security as the China threat grows.
Still, Trump is now formally going beyond talks and bluster about using military force to “reclaim” the American built Panama canal ceded to Panama by Jimmy Carter, he has tasked the Pentagon “immediately” to give him “credible military options” to ensure unfettered American “military and commercial” access to the Canal, per a new strategic memo from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
The memo is titled “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” and it appears to replace the Joe Biden produced 2022 National Defense Strategy. The current memo provides some new directions for U.S. strategic priorities and direction in the second Trump term.
The president is likely also exploring similar military options for the taking of the sparsely populated, resource-rich autonomous Danish territory of Greenland. At his joint session address to Congress last week, Trump said Greenland would be part of the U.S. “one way or the other.”
The military planning toward Panama comes after the U.S. firm BlackRock and a consortium of investors announced a deal to buy two ports at either end of the 50-mile canal from a Hong Kong-based Chinese firm whose ownership had become a focus of Trump’s concern.
In 1989, under President George H.W. Bush, U.S. forces invaded Panama and ousted its illegitimate strongman leader, Manuel Noriega, who was later convicted of drug trafficking. At the time, the U.S. still controlled the Canal and its surrounding Canal zone area.
The canal was finally turned over to Panama, per the earlier Carter treaty, in 1999.
While Trump officials have not defined what “reclaiming” means, the potential plans range from partnering more closely with Panamanian security forces to a less likely option of U.S. troops seizing the canal by force in a crisis.
NBC News reports that:
U.S. Southern Command is developing potential plans from partnering more closely with Panamanian security forces to the less likely option of U.S. troops’ seizing the Panama Canal by force, the officials said. Whether military force is used, the officials added, depends on how much Panamanian security forces agree to partner with the United States.
One option the White House has directed the Pentagon to look into is how to increase the current small American troop presence. Some of the 200 U.S. troops already there are Green Berets working with Panamanian forces to protect the country from internal threats and insurgencies.
The goal of increasing that U.S. presence is to diminish China’s influence, specifically access to the canal, a real threat.
As NBC adds:
Last year, Army Gen. Laura Richardson, now retired, then the commander of Southern Command, testified to the House Armed Services Committee that China is “playing the long game.” Richardson warned that Chinese government-backed economic development projects are “dual-use sites and facilities” that can be quickly flipped and used for military purposes.
“The PRC messages its investments as peaceful, but in fact, many serve as points of future multi-domain access for the PLA and strategic naval choke points,” she said, referring to the People’s Republic of China and the People’s Liberation Army. “In Panama, PRC-controlled state-owned enterprises, SOEs, continue to bid on projects related to the Panama Canal — a global strategic choke point.”
Some of the options under consideration reportedly include using the U.S. forces to secure existing ports in Panama, build new ports or use the Army Corps of Engineers to operate the canal’s locks.
Others include opening Army Jungle Schools, or training camps, in Panama, like the ones U.S. troops trained in jungle warfare before the canal was handed over.
Another option entails positioning U.S. military forces near Panama in the event of a regional war or threat to the U.S. This would allow U.S. forces to secure the canal and block China’s access to it.
U.S. officials say that a U.S. invasion of Panama would come under serious consideration only if a larger American military presence in Panama does not achieve Trump’s goal of “reclaiming” the strategic waterway.
The fact that the Pentagon has been tasked with preparing these plans shows the Trump team is serious about a looming war with China and taking unexpected steps to face the threat in our own backyard.
Meanwhile, Trump is also preparing plans for Greenland as well, even hinting in a White House meeting with the NATO Secretary General that a buildup of U.S. forces there already could be an option.
He told Mark Rutte on Thursday that U.S. control of Greenland is critical to U.S. and international security, escalating his campaign to annex the massive Arctic island that is closer to North America than to Europe.
“You know, Mark, we need that for international security, not just security – international – we have a lot of our favorite players cruising around the coast, and we have to be careful,” Trump told Rutte as they sat side-by-side in the Oval Office for talks. “We’ll be talking to you.”
“I don’t want to drag NATO in that,” Rutte replied diplomatically. But added to Trump that “when it comes to the high north and the Arctic, you are totally right. The Chinese are using these routes. We know that the Russians are rearming.”
Asked directly about the prospect of annexation, Trump said: “I think that will happen.”
Trump then added that the U.S. already has “a couple bases” on Greenland (there is one U.S. military base on the island) and “quite a few soldiers there.”
“Maybe you’ll see more and more soldiers go there, I don’t know,” he mused.
Will the Pentagon begin planning options for Greenland, or have they already started? We will probably find out soon enough.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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You’d think that Carter, as a former Navy officer, would have had some grasp of sea power. But obviously not. Best description of him came from his mother when asked what she though about him being President. “I’m just glad it’s him and not Billy. Jimmy couldn’t run the store.”
Panama Yes, see 1989 invasion then & use Naval forcer for Greenland?