Saunders: Gulf of America? Trump trolls but often for a reason

By Debra J. Saunders / Las Vegas Review-Journal

Embrace the chaos; that’s my formula for dealing with Trump 2.0, especially on the world stage.

If you thought that the second time around President-elect Donald Trump was going to be more congenial toward our allies in the international community, Tuesday you got your wake-up call.

During a Mar-a-Lago press conference, Trump explained how he plans to protect U.S. national interests in ways that a year ago seemed unthinkable. It was not a good day for the governments of Canada, Mexico, Panama and Greenland. The term “Manifest Destiny” is enjoying a comeback.

Yes, he was trolling. At one point, Trump offered, “We’re going to be changing the name of Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring.”

If you put your ear to the ground, you could hear the sound of cellphones buzzing from Foggy Bottom to Mexico City.

On cable news and social media, the reaction was predictable.

How dare he say that?

Can he do that?

(The answer is yes, there’s a federal office for rebranding, the U.S. Board for Geographic Names.)

Well, there’s a caveat. Washington can change the name of the gulf, but other countries need not follow our lead.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, R-Ga., pounced on the clickbait issue. “I’ve directed my staff to immediately begin drafting legislation to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.”

Trump also maintained he could use “economic force” to annex Canada, which he wants to make America’s 51st state. Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau understandably dismissed the annexation scheme as not having a snowball’s chance in hell.

Never one to ignore a good graphic, Trump posted a map that melded Canada and the USA into one country on Truth Social.

The Hill asked its readers, “Do you think Canada should merge with the United States?” Presumably Canadians have some say in the matter.

Ditto residents of Greenland and Panama.

Trump is especially fixated on Panama, with its canal built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Greenland, which is controlled by Denmark, given their key role in international shipping.

When a reporter asked Trump if he could assure the world that he won’t use military or economic coercion to get control of Greenland or the Panama Canal, the former president replied, “No.” It was an unexpected remark when you consider how Trump boasts that he never started a war.

But we’ve seen Trump use his bully pulpit as a negotiating tool before. At his first NATO summit in 2017, Trump berated member nations for not paying their “fair share” on defense — 2 percent of their GDP — and was slow to explicitly endorse Article 5, NATO’s one-for-all and all-for-one provision mutual defense pact. Only four countries met the 2 percent goal in 2017. That number rose to nine in 2020 and 23 last year, a steep rise that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Now Trump argues NATO countries should spend 5 percent of their GDP on defense. (The U.S. spent 2.7 percent of its GDP in 2024; 4.5 percent in 2010 during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, according to the Department of Defense.) You can be sure NATO leaders are listening. It’s a dangerous world out there. They should embrace the chaos.