Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
American expansionism under Donald Trump
President of the United States Donald Trump has proposed various plans and ideas that would expand the United States' political influence and territory. In his second inaugural address, Trump directly referenced potential territorial expansion, and became the first U.S. president to use the phrase manifest destiny during an inaugural address. The last territory acquired by the United States came in 1947 with the acquisition of the Northern Mariana Islands, Caroline, and Marshall Islands. Of these islands, only the Northern Mariana Islands would become a U.S. territory, with the others becoming independent in the 1980s and 1990s under Compacts of Free Association.
Trump first said he wanted to annex Greenland in 2019, during his first term. Since being elected to a second term in 2024, Trump has also shown a desire to annex Canada and the Panama Canal. He has also suggested invading Venezuela, annexing Mexico, taking over the Gaza Strip, and influencing the direction of the Catholic Church. Trump's determination to treat the Western Hemisphere as a U.S. sphere of influence has been characterized as a revival of the Monroe Doctrine.
According to a February 2025 poll by YouGov, only 4% of Americans support American expansion if it requires military force, 33% of Americans support expansion without the use of military or economic force, and 48% of Americans oppose expansion altogether.
Trump has stated intentions to impose a 25% tariff on all goods from Canada in an effort for the Canadian government to stop what in his view is an illegal migration crisis and drug crisis on the Canada–United States border. Canadian officials have responded by threatening the United States with retaliatory tariffs and a shutdown of the flow of Canadian energy into the Northern United States. Trump has repeatedly declared a desire to annex Canada into the United States as its 51st state, rebutting others' insistence that he must be joking. Trump has at times tied annexation to tariff relief.
While Ontario and Quebec strongly reject annexation by the United States, polls show Albertans are slightly more receptive to the idea, though it is still opposed by the vast majority of the population. Proponents of Alberta separatism see their culture as more akin to that of Montana and the United States, than that of eastern Canada. A January 2025 poll by the Angus Reid Institute indicated that approximately 18% of respondents in Alberta favored Trump's annexation proposal, the highest of any province in Canada.
In December 2024, Trump stated a further proposal for the United States to purchase Greenland from Denmark, describing ownership and control of the island as "an absolute necessity" for national security purposes. This builds upon a prior offer from Trump to buy Greenland during his first term, which the Danish Realm refused, causing him to cancel his August 2019 visit to Denmark. On January 7, 2025, Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. visited Greenland's capital city Nuuk alongside Charlie Kirk to hand out MAGA hats. At a press conference the following day, Trump refused to rule out military or economic force in order to take over Greenland or the Panama Canal. However, he did rule out military force in taking over Canada. On January 12, then-Vice President-elect JD Vance repeatedly stated that controlling Greenland is critical for U.S. national security and said there's "a deal to be made in Greenland". Asked on January 14 by Senator Mazie Hirono about the potential use of military force to integrate Greenland into the United States, Pete Hegseth stated he would not provide details in a public forum. On January 14, the Trump-affiliated Nelk Boys also visited Nuuk, handing out dollar bills to locals.
On January 16, the CEOs of major Danish companies Novo Nordisk, Vestas and Carlsberg among others were assembled for a crisis meeting in the Ministry of State to discuss the situation. On the subsequent day, former chief executive Friis Arne Petersen in the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the situation as "historically unheard of", while Noa Redington, special adviser to former prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, compared the international pressure on Denmark to that during the 2005 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. Political commentator Henrik Qvortrup stated on the 17th that a mention of Greenland during Trump's inaugural address on January 20 would confirm Trump's seriousness, making the situation one of Denmark's largest international crises since World War II.
On February 6, 2025, a poll conducted by USA Today between January 7, 2025, and January 10, 2025, was released which showed that only 11% of Americans said that Trump should purchase or annex Greenland. 29% of Americans said that they thought that acquiring Greenland was a good but unrealistic idea, and 53% of Americans said that they don't support the idea of annexing Greenland.
Hub AI
American expansionism under Donald Trump AI simulator
(@American expansionism under Donald Trump_simulator)
American expansionism under Donald Trump
President of the United States Donald Trump has proposed various plans and ideas that would expand the United States' political influence and territory. In his second inaugural address, Trump directly referenced potential territorial expansion, and became the first U.S. president to use the phrase manifest destiny during an inaugural address. The last territory acquired by the United States came in 1947 with the acquisition of the Northern Mariana Islands, Caroline, and Marshall Islands. Of these islands, only the Northern Mariana Islands would become a U.S. territory, with the others becoming independent in the 1980s and 1990s under Compacts of Free Association.
Trump first said he wanted to annex Greenland in 2019, during his first term. Since being elected to a second term in 2024, Trump has also shown a desire to annex Canada and the Panama Canal. He has also suggested invading Venezuela, annexing Mexico, taking over the Gaza Strip, and influencing the direction of the Catholic Church. Trump's determination to treat the Western Hemisphere as a U.S. sphere of influence has been characterized as a revival of the Monroe Doctrine.
According to a February 2025 poll by YouGov, only 4% of Americans support American expansion if it requires military force, 33% of Americans support expansion without the use of military or economic force, and 48% of Americans oppose expansion altogether.
Trump has stated intentions to impose a 25% tariff on all goods from Canada in an effort for the Canadian government to stop what in his view is an illegal migration crisis and drug crisis on the Canada–United States border. Canadian officials have responded by threatening the United States with retaliatory tariffs and a shutdown of the flow of Canadian energy into the Northern United States. Trump has repeatedly declared a desire to annex Canada into the United States as its 51st state, rebutting others' insistence that he must be joking. Trump has at times tied annexation to tariff relief.
While Ontario and Quebec strongly reject annexation by the United States, polls show Albertans are slightly more receptive to the idea, though it is still opposed by the vast majority of the population. Proponents of Alberta separatism see their culture as more akin to that of Montana and the United States, than that of eastern Canada. A January 2025 poll by the Angus Reid Institute indicated that approximately 18% of respondents in Alberta favored Trump's annexation proposal, the highest of any province in Canada.
In December 2024, Trump stated a further proposal for the United States to purchase Greenland from Denmark, describing ownership and control of the island as "an absolute necessity" for national security purposes. This builds upon a prior offer from Trump to buy Greenland during his first term, which the Danish Realm refused, causing him to cancel his August 2019 visit to Denmark. On January 7, 2025, Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. visited Greenland's capital city Nuuk alongside Charlie Kirk to hand out MAGA hats. At a press conference the following day, Trump refused to rule out military or economic force in order to take over Greenland or the Panama Canal. However, he did rule out military force in taking over Canada. On January 12, then-Vice President-elect JD Vance repeatedly stated that controlling Greenland is critical for U.S. national security and said there's "a deal to be made in Greenland". Asked on January 14 by Senator Mazie Hirono about the potential use of military force to integrate Greenland into the United States, Pete Hegseth stated he would not provide details in a public forum. On January 14, the Trump-affiliated Nelk Boys also visited Nuuk, handing out dollar bills to locals.
On January 16, the CEOs of major Danish companies Novo Nordisk, Vestas and Carlsberg among others were assembled for a crisis meeting in the Ministry of State to discuss the situation. On the subsequent day, former chief executive Friis Arne Petersen in the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the situation as "historically unheard of", while Noa Redington, special adviser to former prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, compared the international pressure on Denmark to that during the 2005 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. Political commentator Henrik Qvortrup stated on the 17th that a mention of Greenland during Trump's inaugural address on January 20 would confirm Trump's seriousness, making the situation one of Denmark's largest international crises since World War II.
On February 6, 2025, a poll conducted by USA Today between January 7, 2025, and January 10, 2025, was released which showed that only 11% of Americans said that Trump should purchase or annex Greenland. 29% of Americans said that they thought that acquiring Greenland was a good but unrealistic idea, and 53% of Americans said that they don't support the idea of annexing Greenland.