Trump threatens to take control of Panama Canal, Greenland

China has replaced the United States as the dominant trading partner in Latin America

- Santiago Pérez, José de Córdoba & Alex Leary

President-elect Donald Trump is openly discussing provocative aspirations for U.S. territorial expansion as he prepares to return to the White House, warning about taking over the Panama Canal and wresting control of Greenland from Denmark.

His comments, delivered in public remarks and social-media posts on Sunday, come after he recently trolled Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by suggesting that Canada should become the 51st state and referring to Trudeau as a governor. During the recent presidential campaign, Trump said he would deploy the U.S. military to impose a naval embargo on Mexican cartels and order the Pentagon to use American special forces to take down cartel leaders.

Taken together, the president-elect's broadsides signal that he will pursue a confrontational foreign-policy agenda, leveraging unconventional threats and pointed demands in an attempt to gain advantage over allies and adversaries alike. Trump is often prone to provocation, and it wasn't immediately clear if he would try to follow through on his demands. But if he does, he is likely to face stiff resistance from world leaders, who would object to any effort to undermine their sovereignty.

"We're being ripped off at the Panama Canal like we're being ripped off everywhere else," Trump said at a conservative conference in Phoenix on Sunday, demanding the return of the state-run canal to the U.S. "We will never, never let it fall into the wrong hands."

Trump didn't specify how he would take back control of the canal. His transition team didn't respond to a request for additional comment. Later Sunday, in a statement announcing his pick for U.S. ambassador to Denmark, Trump signaled his continued interest in taking control of Greenland.