Amidst all the Greenland deal talk, President Donald Trump is privately intensifying his focus on Canada, arguing in recent weeks that Ottawa is vulnerable to Russian and Chinese encroachment in the Arctic and needs to spend more on defense, according to multiple current and former US officials familiar with the discussions.<\/p>\n
Officials describe the shift as accelerating internal work on a broader Arctic strategy and raising the prospect of an agreement with Canada this year to fortify the northern border.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump is really worried about the US continuing to drift in the Western Hemisphere and is focused on this,\u201d one official summarized, tying Canada to the same strategic anxieties driving the administration\u2019s Greenland push.<\/p>\n
Current US officials say there is no discussion of stationing American troops on the ground along Canada\u2019s northern border, and they draw a bright line versus Greenland by saying Trump is not seeking to purchase Canada or threatening to take it by military force.<\/p>\n
That distinction is reinforced by Trump\u2019s own prior language, with NBC\u2019s reporting citing his \u201cMeet the Press\u201d comment that it is \u201chighly unlikely\u201d he would use force to take over Canada.<\/p>\n
The private Canada focus is described as landing inside a broader pattern of converting long-running neighbor critiques into actions aimed at expanding US power, including the claim that the US military helped oust Venezuela\u2019s leader and enabled a US takeover of the country\u2019s oil industry. This is on top of threats toward Cuba and warnings to Colombia and Mexico tied to drug flows.<\/p>\n
In that context, Trump is presented as treating Greenland as an Arctic anchor that would also help Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, this is to stop Russia and China from having a further presence in the Arctic,\u201d an administration official said, adding, \u201cCanada stands to benefit from the US having Greenland.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reporting places added weight on Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s Beijing trip last week, described as the first Canadian prime minister visit to China since 2017, including a Friday meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Carney referencing a \u201cnew world order\u201d while seeking stronger China ties amid US tensions.<\/p>\n
Asked about Canada pursuing a trade deal with China, Trump publicly called it \u201ca good thing,\u201d saying: \u201cThat\u2019s what he should be doing,\u201d and \u201cIf you can get a deal with China, you should do that.\u201d \ufffc<\/p>\n
A recurring Trump complaint, repeated privately in recent days, is that Canada\u2019s defense spending is too low for the Arctic threat picture, with officials pointing to Canada still falling short of NATO\u2019s target and arguing Canada must up their game because \u201cthe status quo is not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials also describe Trump expressing interest in buying more icebreakers to expand maritime patrol capacity, positioning that as a potential line item in next year\u2019s defense budget tied to Arctic security.<\/p>\n
Information for this story was found via NBC News and the sources and companies mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to the organizations discussed. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amidst all the Greenland deal talk, President Donald Trump is privately intensifying his focus on Canada, arguing in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,10853,44,99621],"class_list":{"0":"post-431098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-greenland","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-us-canada-relations"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}