CNN — President-elect Donald Trump appears to be entertaining an American territorial expansion that, if he’s serious, would rival the Louisiana Purchase or the deal that netted Alaska from Russia Politics Trump is teasing US expansion into Panama, Greenland and Canada By Steve Contorno, CNN 6 minute read Published 6:26 PM EST, Mon December 23, 2024 President-elect Donald Trump looks on during Turning Point USA's AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center on December 22, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. President-elect Donald Trump looks on during Turning Point USA's AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center on December 22, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. Rebecca Noble/Getty Images CNN — President-elect Donald Trump appears to be entertaining an American territorial expansion that, if he’s serious, would rival the Louisiana Purchase or the deal that netted Alaska from Russia. In the past week, he’s taunted Canadian officials by suggesting the US could absorb its northern neighbor and make it the 51st state. He threatened to take over the Panama Canal, the US-made waterway controlled for a quarter century by its Central American namesake. And on Sunday, he resurfaced his first-term desire to obtain Greenland, a Danish territory he has long eyed. With Trump, the differences between serious policy proposals and rhetorical flourishes intended to stoke media attention or energize his base are not always clear. At other times, his provocations have appeared to be the opening salvos in his attempts at dealmaking. A ship is guided through the Panama Canal's Miraflores locks near Panama City on April 24, 2023. - The scarcity of rainfall due to global warming has forced the Panama Canal to reduce the draft of ships passing through the interoceanic waterway, in the midst of a water supply crisis that threatens the future of this maritime route. The Alhajuela lake, in the Colon province, 50 km north of Panama City, is one of the main lakes that supplies water to the locks of the Panama Canal and is at its lowest level of recent years. (Photo by Luis ACOSTA / AFP) (Photo by LUIS ACOSTA/AFP via Getty Images) Related article What’s the history of the Panama Canal, and why is Trump threatening to retake control of it? Indeed, when Trump vocalized his threat to take back the Panama Canal this weekend, he did so with an out for the country to avoid his wrath: lower fees on American ships that utilize the passageway to travel between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. First.” Speaking in Arizona this weekend, Trump also reiterated plans to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a distinction that could preface the use of military force on Mexican soil. Trump has threatened to drop bombs on fentanyl labs and send special forces to take out cartel leaders, an incursion that could violate Mexico’s sovereignty and disrupt relations with the United States’ largest trading partner.