American civilizational expansion?

American civilizational expansion?
By Terry A. Hurlbut
As 2024 wound down, President-elect Donald J. Trump made some extraordinary proposals that, at the time, no one took seriously. People are taking them seriously now, especially as he added a fourth proposal two days ago. Clearly those proposals are not idle chatter, and indeed never were. Donald Trump has taken a cue from the two most important rivals he has. He is determined to make the United States a civilizational state. To that end he is proposing American civilizational expansion, for the first time since the Spanish-American War.
What civilizational expansion has Trump proposed?
About three weeks after his reelection, Donald Trump proposed 25 percent tariffs on all products from Canada and Mexico. He made that threat in the context of the mass immigration crisis that President Joe Biden still allows. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had decided back in October to reduce immigration into his country. Five days after the tariff threat, Trudeau pledged to work with Trump on solving issues of trade and immigration. He also pledged to cooperate on stemming the flow of fentanyl into the United States. Fentanyl, once a valuable injectable anesthetic, is now mainly a drug of abuse – and suicide, accidental and deliberate.
In early December, Mr. Trudeau seemed to be sincere in reducing immigration – into his country, anyway. But Trump abruptly suggested that if Canada couldn’t handle the tariff, then it could become the Fifty-first State! Nine days later, Trudeau openly criticized the American people for reelecting Trump, saying “regressive forces” were “taking over America.” Elon Musk angrily called Trudeau an “insufferable fool” for saying so.
A week before Christmas, Trump indicated that he wasn’t “trolling.” He indicated that annexing Canada would confer some immediate economic benefits. Two days after Christmas, Kevin O’Leary, of Shark Tank fame, publicly praised the idea.
Canadian politicians hate the idea. Canadian MP Elizabeth May proposed annexing the States of Washington, Oregon and California instead. Ontario’s Tory Prime Minister Doug Ford proposed that Canada annex Alaska and Minnesota. Two days ago Trudeau indicated his definite refusal – and several X users razzed him.
What else has Trump said?
Trump didn’t stop with proposing to annex Canada. He also has proposed revoking the Panama Canal Treaty and repossessing the Canal. Panama, he says, has been charging exorbitant tolls – and allowed the Chinese to build facilities, under Chinese control, at the two entry ports. On Christmas Day, Panamanian residents burned American flags outside the American Embassy in protest.
Two days before Christmas, Trump insisted that the United States should acquire Greenland, the world’s largest non-continental island. He had proposed that once before – in 2019, provoking the Danish Prime Minister to dismiss the idea out of hand. This time, Greenland’s Prime Minister declared the island “not for sale.” But Prime Minister Múte Egede also wants to declare formal independence from Denmark. Interestingly, several individual Greenlanders welcome the idea of becoming American nationals, if not necessarily citizens. They complain that the Danes have not served them well, and are taking them for granted.
Two days ago, Donald Trump’s son Don Jr. visited Greenland, as if to press the point. On that same day, Trump refused to rule out using the U.S. military to secure Greenland and the Canal both.
Finally, Trump said something else two days ago that is even more civilizational. He proposed to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. This recalls the ancient Roman name for the Mediterranean Sea: Mare Nostrum, Our Sea. (The Latin abbreviation for “Our Gulf” would read Sinus Noster.)
Does this expansion serve America as a civilizational state in the making?
To answer that, consider first whether territorial expansion is imperative, or even workable, for a civilizational state. The United States has never managed empire building well. An empire controls certain territories whose people have no representation in its government. This creates an inherent weakness, as the Republic of Ukraine is finding out. People without “skin in the game” grow restive, or even rebellious.
That’s why the United States has always striven to admit new territories, of sufficient size and population density, as States. This is why the United States admitted its two most recent States, Alaska and Hawaii, in 1959. (Some suggest that Puerto Rico should become a State for similar reasons.) Territories this side that have not become States, have become independent instead. Apart from Puerto Rico, America has several smaller territories, including the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Each of these territories sends a non-voting Delegate to the House of Representatives – but do not even have non-voting representation in the Senate. They also send delegates to the two major Party nominating conventions.
That’s good enough for small islands or island chains. It might even be enough for Greenland, which barely has the population of a small town. It would not serve for all of Canada.
That aside, a civilizational state typically expands contiguously. Apart from Alaska and Hawaii, America’s territory is contiguous. Some scholars suggest that a civilization expands, or dies. So expansion might serve a civilizational purpose after all.
Not Canada
Of all the proposals the President-elect has made, annexing Canada would be the least workable. Canada is nominally larger than the United States, and has the second most land area in the world. Its population is another matter: less than 41.5 million, or thirty-sixth in rank. So it barely has more people than has California, still the most populous State.
Nevertheless, Canada already has ten subdivisions, or provinces, each with a well-organized government. Its people would never consent to joining the United States as one State with a mere two Senators! They would insist on twenty Senators – and would be entitled to at least fifty-four Representatives. So the United States would have two choices: expand the House, or ask the States to give up Representatives to Canada or its provinces.
The Overton Window – the limits of “acceptable” political discourse – is far to the left of that in the United States. That difference is even more pronounced after Trump’s reelection, which saw the American Overton Window shift rightward. Canadian Tories vote, at best, like American RINOs, like Liz Cheney or Mitt Romney. And they are the most rightward Party Canada has! Admitting Canada – as one State, or ten with non-State territories – would be equivalent to admitting another California.
And what of those territories? The Yukon Territory at least has some decent organization. But the former Northwest Territories have been ceded largely to the indigenous population. The new name is Inuit Nunaangat – or, less politically correctly, Eskimoland.
The Panama Canal
The current Panama Canal Treaty has a clause giving America a say in the “operations and security” of the Canal. Perhaps Trump could make the case that Panama has not kept up its obligations under that clause. Gateway Pundit commentator John Mills recommends, instead of outright repossession, that Trump’s new Ambassador to Panama cultivate a better relationship with the center-right President of Panama.
Mills also says the Panama Canal is in trouble. At one point it could pass only 18 ships a day – and not even fully loaded ships. Mexico, Nicaragua, and Colombia are all working on new canals across their territories – and the Communist Chinese, through their vaunted Belt and Road Initiative, are ready to “help.”
So Trump can better resolve the dispute over Panama Canal bottlenecks and tolls by working out a deal with Panama’s government to address the present Canal’s problems. His threat to repossess the Canal is an opening negotiating gambit, and that’s all it has to be.
Greenland
Contrary to popular belief, when Erik the Red named the island Greenland, it really was green. Erik discovered the island during the Medieval Warm Period, about which climate scaremongers prefer that people forget. (Erik’s son Leif would go on to find an island much further west, which he named Newfoundland.)
58,000 people live on Greenland. According to Mills, the Chinese have come calling there, too. That’s Donald Trump’s interest in the island – to keep the Chinese away. And the Russians, who after all have their Northern Fleet that operates in the Arctic.
For nearly two and a half years, Americans, looking for lithium and similar minerals, have eyed Greenland. (Oil is available, too, but three years ago Greenland’s government deliberately decided to leave it in the ground.) The Arctic could also be an alternative passage for cargo vessels. Trump would be after access to those minerals, plus harbors for at least two Naval bases. One could handle surface ships (especially icebreakers.) The other could handle submarines, the real challengers to Russian and Chinese Naval power in the Arctic.
Renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America – or the Gulf of the Americas – would be a powerful symbolic gesture. In fact, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) already has a bill to accomplish that renaming. Likewise, Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) has a bill to repossess the Panama Canal.
Reaction to the idea of American civilizational expansion
The reaction in many quarters to the idea of American territorial expansion, shows that people aren’t used to watching a civilizational state in action. They certainly aren’t accustomed to America thinking and acting like a civilizational state.
Take CNN’s Abby Phillips, arguing the point with token Republican contributor Scott Jennings:
Phillips: We helped create a world order in which we said, you cannot just decide you want that country and then take your military and go into that country and take it. Okay, so that is the era of not being in an expansionist military era for the United States. And you’re saying that’s not true. Why is it not true?
Jennings: Well, you can think small if you want to, but I think Trump’s thinking big, and he’s thinking about U.S. interests. There are U.S. interests in Greenland, they have rare earth minerals, we already have some kind of space facility there, and it would help fortify us against the Russians. The Panama Canal is of course of interest when you consider the Chinese incursions and influence in this hemisphere.
What Donald Trump is saying to the world is we are not a shrinking violet anymore. We are the United States of America. We are the preeminent superpower. And reporters keep asking him to rule things out and take things off the table, and it would be the height of stupidity to do so now or do anything else before he takes office. Why would he tell the rest of the world what he may or may not do?
https://x.com/WesternLensman/status/1876834243336090073
That last is a direct reference to Trump’s refusal to rule out military action to take Greenland and/or Panama by force. He similarly refused to rule out “economic coercion,” whatever form that might take, to achieve the same end.
Matt Walsh, at The Daily Wire, seems to think it expedient to annex Canada, without granting Canadians the right to vote in U.S. elections. Whether Walsh seriously means what he seems to say, is unclear. But he did catch Justin Trudeau in an admission that would almost justify such action. In 2015, The New York Times wrote approvingly of Trudeau saying:
There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada. There are shared values … Those qualities are what make us the first postnational state.
That’s the perfect way to ingratiate oneself with the World Economic Forum, the real empire builders in the Western world. It’s also just the sort of thing the spiritual – and perhaps natural – son of Fidel Castro would say. But Justin Trudeau has resigned, and the Tories are likely to take over.
Or are they? Why did Trudeau resign long enough for his Liberals to elect another Party leader? Will the WEF try a third time to assassinate Trump before he takes office? But if so, did the January 6 Snowstorm throw a large wooden shoe into that plan?
Analysis
If anyone takes another shot at Trump, all bets are off – especially if, God forbid, that shot finds its mark. If such a shot goes wild, count on Trump investigating – after Kash Patel has had time to hold the FBI up by its collective ankles and shake it. Then Trudeau will have to answer a question: what did the Prime Minister know, and when did he know it?
But in any case, Trump has already talked of making Canada “the Fifty-first State.” Again, Canada will never come willingly into the United States and settle for only two Senators. Alberta Province might – as other influencers have proposed. Otherwise, Canada comes in with twenty Senators – or not at all.
Greenland and the Panama Canal are other matters altogether. Trump might have proposed annexing either or both, as opening negotiating gambits. But even introducing the possibility into open discussion, is a civilizational thing to do.
That’s important, because Russia and China are definitely civilizational – though China seems to be trying to build an empire. The United States must counter both. That will definitely require one, perhaps two, Naval bases in Alaska. Adding to the U.S. military presence in Greenland would be another useful security measure. As to Panama, the important thing is not so much to lay hands on the Canal but to pry Chinese hands off it.
As America experiments with civilizational thinking, all eyes are on Washington, D.C. for the inauguration. Which is as it should be.
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Video: Abby Phillips v. Scott Jennings:
https://x.com/WesternLensman/status/1876834243336090073

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