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US President-elect Donald Trump has said he would not rule out the use of military force to seize control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, as he declared US control of both to be vital to American national security.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday (early Wednesday AEDT) less than two weeks before he takes office on January 20 and as a delegation of aides and advisers that includes his son Donald Trump Jr is in Greenland, Trump left open the use of the American military to secure both territories.
"I'm not going to commit to that," he said, when asked if he would rule out the use of the military.
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"It might be that you'll have to do something. The Panama Canal is vital to our country."
He added, "we need Greenland for national security purposes".
Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark, a longtime US ally and a founding member of NATO.
Trump, a Republican, has floated having Canada join the United States.
He said he would not use military force to do that, saying, he would rely on "economic force".
Trump also complained President Joe Biden was undermining his transition to power a day after the incumbent moved to ban offshore energy drilling in most federal waters.
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Biden, whose term expires in two weeks, used his authority under the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect offshore areas along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of Alaska's Northern Bering Sea from future oil and natural gas leasing.
All told, about 253 million hectares of federal waters were withdrawn from energy exploration by Biden in a move that may require an act of Congress to undo.
"I'm going to put it back on day one," Trump told reporters at his private club in Florida.
He pledged to take it to the courts "if we need to".
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Trump said Biden's effort — part of a series of final actions in office by the Democrat's administration — was undermining his plans for once he's in office.
"You know, they told me that, we're going to do everything possible to make this transition to the new administration very smooth," Trump said.
"It's not smooth."
But Biden's team has extended access and courtesies to the Trump team that the Republican former president initially denied Biden after his 2020 election victory.
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Trump incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles told Axios in an interview published Monday that Biden chief of staff Jeff Zients had been "has been very helpful".
In extended remarks, Trump also railed against the work of special counsel Jack Smith, who oversaw now-dropped prosecutions over his role in the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol and possession of of classified documents after he left office in 2021.
The Justice Department is expected to soon release a report from Smith summarising his investigation after the criminal cases were forced to an end by Trump's victory in November.
Trump also said he would move to try to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America", saying that has a "beautiful ring to it".
