Prepare for weakened multilateralism

During the election campaign, President Donald Trump repeatedly said he wanted to "stop wars" and prevent the US from becoming embroiled in foreign adventures.

- MALEEHA LODHI

During the election campaign, President Donald Trump repeatedly said he wanted to "stop wars" and prevent the US from becoming embroiled in foreign adventures. But his provocative statements earlier this month sent a different message.

He threatened to take over the Panama Canal and Greenland, if necessary by military force, and turn Canada into the 51st state of the US by using "economic force." He also suggested the Gulf of Mexico should be renamed the "Gulf of America." Meanwhile, his close ally and X owner Elon Musk called for the removal of UK's Keir Starmer government and declared his support for the far right in Germany.

Does this mean Trump 2.0 is already proving to be destabilizing for the world even before he starts his second term? His aggressive assertions certainly signal that, angering countries in Europe and beyond. His statements did not of course go unanswered. French and German leaders shot back to warn the US not to meddle with Europe's borders while Danish leaders said Greenland was not for sale. The Mexican president responded to Trump's remarks by saying parts of the US should instead be named Mexican America. Canada's then prime minister, Justin Trudeau, tweeted "there was a snowball's chance in hell" of his country becoming part of the US.

But the question is whether all this is characteristic Trumpian bluster or a disturbing indication of what's to come, which many see as a throwback to 19th-century US imperialism or an age of territorial expansionism. The Financial Times decried Trump's "expansionist rhetoric" as "dangerously wrong-headed" and pointed to its "unsettling" effect on America's allies.

But only time will tell whether such pronouncements will actually translate into policy actions.