President-elect Trump faced the media at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday, the day after Congress had certified his victory in November’s election.
The press conference came 13 days before Trump will be inaugurated, at which point he will become the only president since Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century to serve nonconsecutive terms.
Trump muses about renaming Gulf of Mexico ‘Gulf of America’
Trump’s remarks were typically wide-ranging and encompassed topics from conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine to Trump’s long-standing grievances about windmills and showers with ineffective water flow.
Here are five takeaways from his comments.
Trump refused to rule out military force in relation to the Panama Canal or Greenland
In the biggest news of the day, Trump left the door ajar to using military force in Greenland or the Panama Canal.
Trump has of late renewed his interest in the United States somehow taking control of Greenland or absorbing it into the U.S. for strategic reasons. Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.
Trump has also complained about the Panama Canal, a globally vital waterway, being given back to Panama under terms agreed to by the late President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s. Carter died Dec. 29 at age 100.
Asked at the news conference whether he would rule out “military or economic coercion” to take control of both places, Trump demurred.
“No,” he began. “We need them for economic security.”
Trump was asked later in the news conference about Canada, which he has — perhaps mischievously — said he would like to make the “51st state.” The president-elect did rule out the use of military force north of the border.
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Later in the day, outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on social media that there was not “a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.”
It’s not exactly clear what should be made of Trump’s implicit threat to Greenland and Canada. His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., visited Greenland on Tuesday, but that looked more like a charm offensive than a precursor to any more aggressive action.
Trump takes umbrage at Biden’s actions during transition period
Tonally, one of the most striking things about the news conference was President-elect Trump’s obvious irritation at some actions taken by President Biden in the period since the election.
Trump seemed especially irked at Biden’s recent executive order that will render about 625 million acres of American waters off-limits to new drilling permits.
The action “will not stand,” Trump insisted, asserting that he would “reverse it immediately.” Invoking a campaign trail slogan, Trump said once he is president, the overarching policy would be “drill, baby, drill!”
The president-elect further contended that the current White House was giving money to “anyone who wants it, for any project.”
Trump also reemphasized a complaint he has made on social media, insisting that the Biden administration was making the transition period unnecessarily difficult.
“They told me they’re going to do everything possible to make this transition to the new administration very smooth. It’s not smooth because they’re doing that, they’re playing with the courts,” he said.
However, Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles recently praised the current occupant of that job under Biden, Jeff Zients, for having “been very helpful.”
‘The Gulf of America’
As is often the case with Trump, one of the most striking elements of his news conference was one of the most unexpected.
“We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the ‘Gulf of America.’ What a beautiful name,” Trump said. “And it’s appropriate. It’s appropriate.”
His proposal appears to be related to his pique about migration across the southern border. He immediately followed his comments about renaming the Gulf by saying, “Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), one of the president-elect’s most fervent supporters in Congress, wrote on social media that she would be “introducing legislation ASAP to officially change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to its rightful name, the Gulf of America!”
Good news for Trump from beyond Mar-a-Lago
Trump got the chance to react to breaking news when, as his press conference was taking place, it emerged that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon had temporarily blocked the release of a report into Trump from special counsel Jack Smith.
Smith, to the president-elect’s fury, had brought two separate indictments against him – one relating to his role on and leading up to the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, and one relating to sensitive documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago after his first term had ended.
Cannon, a Trump nominee, is a controversial figure already because of a series of rulings that critics charge have been overly sympathetic to the president-elect.
Cannon’s delay of Smith’s report is temporary.
Nonetheless, Trump welcomed the development as “great news.”
As to the report itself, he contended, “It’ll be a fake report just like it was a fake investigation.”
Smith was ultimately thwarted because Trump won the 2024 election before either of the special counsel’s cases could come to trial.
Multiple media organizations have reported that Smith will resign before Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
A taste of what’s to come
Beyond its specifics, the Mar-a-Lago event was a reminder of what’s in store once Trump is back in office.
The 45th president rewrote the norms of American political discourse from the time he began his first campaign. During his first term, an incessant stream of tweets, surprise announcements and often-bizarre controversies became the norm.
Tuesday was a reminder that the president-elect, now 78, isn’t going to change.
The next four years will see plenty of similar moments.
