(7 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
POOL
Palm Beach, Florida – 7 January 2025
1. Donald Trump listening to reporter question
2. UPSOUND (English) Reporter question:
"Your references to Greenland and the Panama Canal and so forth, can you assure the world that as you try to get control of these areas, you are not going to use military or economic coercion?
(Trump: No.)
And can you tell us a little bit about what your plan is? What what is the strategy?"
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, U.S. President-elect:
"I can’t assure you. You’re talking about Panama and Greenland. No, I can’t assure you either of those two. But I can say this. We need them for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military. I’m not going to commit to that now. It might, it might be that you’ll have to do something. Look, the Panama Canal is vital to our country. It’s being operated by China, China. And we gave the Panama Canal to Panama. We didn’t give it to China. And they’ve abused it. They’ve abused that gift. It should have never been made, by the way. Giving the Panama Canal is why Jimmy Carter lost the election, in my opinion, more so maybe than the hostages. The hostages were a big deal. But if you remember and nobody wants to talk about the Panama Canal now because you know, it’s inappropriate, I guess, but because it’s a bad part of the Carter legacy. But he was a good man. Look, he was a good man. I knew him a little bit. And he was a very fine person. But that was a big mistake."
4. UPSOUND (English) Reporter question:
"You said you were considering military force to acquire Panama and Greenland. Are you also considering military force to annex and acquire Canada?"
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, U.S. President-elect:
"No,. Economic force. Because Canada and the United States, that would really be something. You get rid of that artificially drawn line and you take a look at what that looks like. And it would also be much better for national security. Don’t forget, we basically protect Canada. But here’s the problem with Canada. So many friends up there. I love the Canadian people, they’re great. But we’re spending hundreds of billions a year to protect it. We’re spending hundreds of billions a year to take care of Canada. We lose in trade deficits, we’re losing massive…We don’t need their cars. You know, they make 20% of our cars. We don’t need that. I’d rather make them in Detroit. We don’t need the cars. We don’t need their lumber. We have massive fields of lumber. We don’t need their lumber. We have to unrestrict them because stupid people put, you know, restrictions on, but I can do that with an executive order. We don’t need anything they have. We don’t need their dairy products. We have more than they have. We don’t need anything. So why are we losing $200 billion a year and more to protect Canada?"
5. UPSOUND (English) Reporter question:
"Mr. President, back on Greenland. Your position is clear. But have you directed your staff to take specific actions to draw up plans? And can you elaborate again because you didn’t rule out military coercion?"
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, U.S. President-elect:
(Reporter: But the U.S. has not drawn up plans for acquisition? Are you actively…)
No, we’re not at that stage. I haven’t even entered office yet."
++ENDS ON A SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would not rule out the use of military force to seize control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, as he declared U.S. control of both to be vital to American national security.
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/0d171e265a544cda9baa5ad4c620082f
Author: AP Archive
Go to Source
News post in January 12, 2025, 6:05 pm.
Visit Our Sponsor’s:
News Post In – News
