Above photo: Eric Trump’s post on his father’s aims in Panama, Greenland and Canada-Checkout on Amazon!!
Foreboding Policies to be Enacted on Day One of Trump’s Administration.
Letting no holiday opportunity go without stirring up chaos, turbulence and retaliation, by mid-morning on Christmas Day, President-elect Trump posted a series of insensitive, brazen and mean spirited “Merry Christmas” messages on his Truth Social platform.
These posts for both national and international issues were followed, predictably, by over two dozen re-posts of articles or other social media posts forecasting his political agenda on topics including troubled Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth and his designation of Greenland and the Panama Canal as U.S. national security necessities, tariffs on Mexico and Canada, and reinstatement of the federal death penalty that Biden had suspended.
In a Rebuke to Trump, Panama’s President Reminds Trump that the Panama Canal Belongs to Panama
On Christmas Day, Trump wrote a backhanded, weird compliment to China while demanding the return of the Panama Canal to U.S. control to save U.S. corporations millions of dollars in canal transit fees.
“Merry Christmas to all, including to the wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal (where we lost 38,000 people in its building 110 years ago), always making certain that the United States puts in Billions of Dollars in ‘repair’ money, but will have absolutely nothing to say about ‘anything.’” Trump said that Panama was charging US ships “ridiculous, highly unfair” fees to use the canal and that the U.S. should again have control of the canal.
Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino released a video declaring that “every square meter of the canal belongs to Panama and will continue to belong” to his country.
Mulino reminded Trump, who doubt has no idea of how the canal operates but has been fed the story of dramatically rising costs by his corporate buddies, that fees for ships crossing the canal are set by experts who take into account operational costs, and supply and demand factors.
The canal depends on water in reservoirs in the canal route across the peninsula to operate its locks. The reservoirs were affected by 2023 drought in Central America that forced canal administrators to substantially reduce the number of daily slots for ships using the canal. With fewer ships using the canal each day, fees were increased for all shippers reserving a slot to use the canal to bypass weeks in going around the tip of South America to get to markets on the east coast of the U.S. and in Europe.
Greenland is NOT for Sale
In another gratuitous international statement, while announcing corporate friend PayPal co-founder Ken Howery as his choice for United States ambassador to Denmark, Trump said, “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”
Trump’s mentioning of control of Greenland did not come out-of-the blue. In 2019, in his first term as President, Trump cancelled an entire trip to Denmark after the woman Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Trump that Greenland is not for sale and that it’s an “an absurd discussion,” which probably ensured that Trump would bring up Greenland again even before he is inaugurated.
That is the Matterhorn in Switzerland, actually pic.twitter.com/59CJqGJAmE
— Polling Canada (@CanadianPolling) December 3, 2024
Trump Targets Canada
In yet another slap at the country’s important neighbors on Christmas Day, Trump also criticized Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Trump posted on Truth Social, “Also, to Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada, whose Citizens’ Taxes are far too high, but if Canada was to become our 51st State, their Taxes would be cut by more than 60%,” relegating Canada to a country like the U.S. that would have no national health insurance and many other social services for its citizens. As it typical for Trump’s pronouncements, he doesn’t have all the facts:
U.S. federal income tax brackets range from 10% to 37% for individuals as of 2024, while the tax range is 15% to 33% in Canada.
In early December 2024, Trump posted a strange image of him and the Canadian flag on top of a mountain just days after suggesting Canada become the U.S.’s 51st state
Trump’s AI-generated posting had just one problem: the mountain range appeared to be the Swiss Alps, with a peak reminiscent of the Matterhorn visible in the background.
In late November 2024, Trudeau arrived at Mar-a-Lago for an unannounced dinner with Donald Trump after the president-elect on Truth Social that his Day 1 to-do list included slapping 25 percent tariffs on Canada, conditioning the tariffs on Canada securing its border with the United States.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Tells His Version of Their Conversation is Wrong
In late November 2024, Trump said upon taking office, he would impose an across-the-board import tariff of 25% on Mexico and Canada, and a 10% tariff on China.
He also said that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum had “agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.” Sheinbaum challenged Trump’s version of the phone call, saying she had merely reiterated Mexico’s position, which she said was “not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and people”.
Trump has said that on Day One of his presidency, he will be “the largest deportation program in American history.”
Domestic Issues Not Spared: Trump Goes After the Democrats and Biden in Christmas postings
While in his inaugural address on January 21, 2021, Biden vowed to “end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal,” Trump typically has taken an opposite tact.
Portending chaos and retribution in his new Presidential administration and ensuring he continues the divide in U.S. society, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Merry Christmas to the Radical Left Lunatics, who are constantly trying to obstruct our Court System and our Elections. They know that their only chance of survival is getting pardons from a man who has absolutely no idea what he is doing.”
“Go To Hell, to Those Whose Death Penalty Sentences Were Lifted”
On the issue of the federal death penalty, in a typical divisive sentiment wholly unfitting for the Christmas season, Trump made clear that the three dozen death row inmates Biden recently spared from execution are not included in his holiday greetings, or apparently in the Trump “God Bless the USA” edition of the Bible available for $59.99 plus shipping, containing copies of the handwritten chorus to “God Bless The USA”, The US Constitution, The Bill of Rights, The Declaration of Independence, and The Pledge of Allegiance.
Instead, on Christmas Day, the “self-professed Christian” President-elect Trump says those whose sentences were commuted should go to hell.
“I refuse to wish a Merry Christmas to those lucky ‘souls’ but, instead, will say, GO TO HELL!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
During the 2024 Presidential campaign, due in large measure to Trump’s belligerent and hate-filled rhetoric, particularly toward migrants, polarization in the country has tragically increased.
Trump’s Call for Prosecution of Perceived Political Enemies
Additionally, Trump has called for the prosecution of perceived political enemies and vows to pardon those convicted in the January 7, 2021 riots at the U.S. capitol.
Trump is staffing his administration with those who agree with his efforts at retribution toward political enemies, including nominating Trump loyalist Kash Patel as FBI Director.
Trump also vows to pardon people who were convicted for roles in the riot at the Capitol. The Department of Justice has prosecuted some 1,500 people including the leaders of the militant Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, and indicted Trump on four criminal charges, including conspiracy to overturn the election. Special counsel Jack Smith has since abandoned the case against Trump ahead of the inauguration in adherence to Justice Department guidelines that sitting presidents cannot be charged.
Policies to be Enacted on Day 1 in the New Trump Administration
As a reminder, during the presidential campaign and after the election, Trump and his team have specifically mentioned the policies that he would enact on Day One — Inauguration Day is January 20, 2025 — of his presidency. The policies include:
- Close the US-Mexico border
- Begin what Trump says will be “the largest deportation program in American history”
- Expedite permits for drilling and fracking
- Roll back environmental regulations
- Pardon people convicted of crimes related to the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol
- Sign an executive order that would cut federal funding for any school “pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content onto the lives of our children.”
- Roll back President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle policies
- Enact tariffs on goods coming in from Mexico, Canada and China
Ann Wright served 29 years in the U.S. Army/Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. She was a U.S. diplomat for 16 years and served in U.S. embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She is the co-author of “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.”