Trump challenges everyone, from NATO to Greenland. Ultimatum to Hamas: "It will be hell"

In a press conference lasting over an hour, US President-elect Donald Trump did not rule out the use of the military to annex Greenland and the Panama Canal, and issued a new warning to NATO allies: either they will raise the membership quota at 5 percent of gross domestic product, or the US will not defend them from a potential attack by Russia. The messages were accompanied by a threat to Hamas: if the Israeli hostages held since October 7, 2023 are not released by the time it takes office on January 20, “All hell will break loose in the Middle East”. Trump, however, also admitted that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine “will intensify more than what has happened so far”, leaving aside the optimism that had led him, during the election campaign, to promise an end to the conflict within twenty-four hours of his return to the White House.

For weeks his staff had described him as calm and peaceful, but the Trump who appeared before journalists at his headquarters in Florida, the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, was the same as always. Asked whether he ruled out “military and economic coercion” to annex Greenland and the Panama Canal, Trump responded with a firm “no.” The tycoon, in his first conference as officially elected president, attacked New York judge Juan Merchan, the one who presided over the Stormy trial, calling him “very dishonest”, criticized Joe Biden’s foreign policy, blaming him for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Regarding Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, who led the investigation in which Trump was indicted for his involvement in the January 6, 2021 insurrection, Trump called him a “deranged individual,” and then praised federal Judge Aileen Cannon who temporarily blocked the release of Smith’s final report on the president’s role in the insurrection. “I haven’t done anything wrong – he said – if I had done something wrong now I wouldn’t be here in front of you talking, and this happened because I won all the trials”.

Among the proposals launched by the tycoon, who confirmed the threat to impose duties on Canada, China and Mexico, there is also that of wanting to change the name of the Gulf of Mexicorenaming it the “Gulf of America” and reiterated his call for Mexico to help the United States stop the flow of illegal immigration across the southern border. Trump promised to “make the American economy take off like a rocket” and recalled that he had received the thanks of many world leaders, who he said were happy for his re-election. Among the leaders to whom he dedicated a thought was the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who went to visit him on Saturday at Mar-a-Lago, with a surprise trip. “The Italian Prime Minister Meloni – he said – came here the other evening, flew to stay here for a few hours and left again”. Meloni, added the president-elect, “showed great respect”, as did other leaders during his visit to Paris for the inauguration of the restored Notre Dame cathedral.