Beijing must be quite nonplussed. After spending years seeking a major revision of the international order which has been in place since the Second World War, along comes an American President, no less, who in the passage of only two weeks struck at its very foundations. President Donald Trump sees the world as a vast expanse of real estate, the White House as the US nation’s very own Trump Tower, and the conduct of foreign policy as the art of the property deal.
On the campaign trail President Trump pro-mised to expand America, and once established in the Oval Office expressed his desire to acquire Canada, Greenland, the Panama Canal and Gaza. It should come as no surprise that his favourite US president is William McKinley, who was in office from 1897 to 1901and oversaw the most imperialist phase in the history of America when it took possession of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam and Hawaii.
Political observers are divided over how serious the President’s intentions are, some citing his 1987 book The Art of the Deal, written in conjunction with the journalist Tony Schwartz, for arguing that it is all a negotiating tactic. In that he writes: “The final key to the way I promote is bravado. I play to people’s fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That’s why a little hyperbole never hurts.”
That was written almost forty years ago, and what is happening now goes beyond ‘a little hyperbole,’ added to which the fantasy seems to be all on his side. It may be, of course, that he is more serious in some instances than others.
It is difficult to believe that he was really serious about acquiring Canada, for example, although on Friday Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told business leaders that President Trump’s fixation was “a real thing” because he wanted access to the country’s critical minerals. If one were to indulge this flight of fancy on the US President’s part for a moment, it can only be remarked that Canada would not become the 51st state, because it has eight provinces, all, or most of which, would presumably become states. Considering that their populations tend to be more liberal leaning that that of America, the Republicans would soon find their votes swamp-ed at election time.
Then there is the Panama Canal, which President Trump is definitely serious about and said he would acquire by force if necessary because America controlled it until Jimmy Carter’s day, and should not have relinquished it. The main issue is what Washington has said is Chinese control of the canal, something which is not the case. What is true is that a Hong Kong based company manages the two ports at either end of it, in addition to which the Chinese are currently building a bridge over it. Panama has also signed on to Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative. The issue is one of security and the Chinese capacity to spy on or block American shipping at a time of any confrontation between the two states.
After a visit by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino announced that his country’s agreement in relation to the Belt and Road Initiative would be allowed to expire and not be renewed. In addition, two Panamanian lawyers have lodged a lawsuit in the nation’s supreme court seeking to revoke the Hong Kong company’s concession to manage the canal ports on the grounds the contract is unconstitutional. Whether if they succeed this will satisfy President Trump remains to be seen.
Then there is Greenland, which the President regards as terra nullius, and has offered to buy from Denmark. He seems to think this is still the 19th century when the US bought Louisiana from France, and later Alaska from Russia. But Greenland is an autonomous territory under Denmark’s jurisdiction, and while its population would like full independence, it does not want to exchange one colonial authority for another in the form of the US.
The issues are once again security and rare minerals, which are by no means easily accessible. President Trump has also added the fact of Greenland’s proximity to America, and therefore the convenience of owning it. The implications of that position hardly need spelling out.
Where security is concerned the US already has a base in Greenland, and its present concern is the melting ice in the Arctic which has opened up potential transit passages for Chinese and Russian vessels. That could be addressed satisfactorily through negotiation with Denmark, however, without annexing Greenland. Denmark has said there will be no sale, while her allies are left astounded by the possible, if unlikely prospect of one Nato ally using force against the territory of another.
The most dangerous of President Trump’s imperial fantasies is turning the Gaza Strip into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East.’ When first announced at a joint press conference with the Israeli Prime Minister, the latter stood there evincing all the smugness of a Cheshire cat. As well he might. It is a dream come true for the right-wing bigots on whom his government depends. The idea has had various forms, but the latest, although still vague, seems to be that Israel will hand over the Strip to America to be developed at the end of fighting and after the Palestinians have left.
The White House has said there will be no American boots on the ground, and the Israeli Defence Minister wasted no time in ordering the IDF to put together a plan for Gaza residents to leave voluntarily. The intention is for Egypt and Jordan to take them in (more than 2 million), both of which have rejected the idea. Jordan especially is already accommodating more than 1 million refugees from Iraq and Syria. The proposal has caused anger in the Middle East, not least among the Palestinians who have no intention of going anywhere, and has been denounced across the world.
It effectively amounts to ethnic cleansing and in one fell swoop has killed the two-state solution and has put the current peace deal in question. It will never come to pass, but will nevertheless still cause chaos and major instability in the Middle East as a whole and give the Israeli right wing the carte blanche to take over the West Bank more directly. Living in his unreal world President Trump has said everyone loved the idea. He clearly doesn’t follow the news, or his advisors don’t, and he probably believes he can blackmail Egypt into caving in on account of the billions in military aid Washington gives Cairo.
These land grabs come in addition to the policy on tariffs – another disaster for the world – and the likely closing of USAID by the plutocrat Elon Musk, which will eliminate America’s soft power around the globe and create a vacuum that China especially will be only too happy to fill. (A US federal judge on Friday put a temporary block on the firing of thousands of USAID staff.) Then there are the sanctions President Trump has placed on International Criminal Court officials, because of the warrants in relation to war crimes in Gaza issued against Messrs Netanyahu and Gallant.
President Trump seems to be creating a new world which functions without principles. The message he is sending whether intentional or not is that anyone can seize land (a matter of some concern to us) and no one is accountable at a global level. The bitter irony of all of this is that a chaotic globe will not make America more powerful, quite the opposite in fact.
