In a chaotic news conference on Tuesday, one day after Congress certified his election victory, Donald Trump threatened military action on the Panama Canal and economic measures against neighboring Canada. The event, initially called to announce a $20 billion Emirati investment in US technology, quickly devolved into a rally-style speech where Trump revisited many of his campaign themes.

"Since we won the election, the whole perception of the whole world is different. People from other countries have called me. They said, 'Thank you, thank you,' Trump remarked as he outlined his plans for the next four years to reporters at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

Trump took a jab at President Joe Biden over the 2025 transition, accusing the White House of making it more difficult for him. 

On the international scene, Trump proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America" and threatened huge tariffs on Mexico unless it stopped illegal border crossings. He also refused to rule out using military force to take control of Greenland and the Panama Canal, repeating his criticism of late former President Jimmy Carter’s decision to allow local management of the Central American canal.

When asked if he would use military force to pressure Canada, he responded, "No, economic force," suggesting that erasing the "artificially drawn" US-Canada border would benefit national security.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded by saying that there is a "snowball's chance in hell" of Canada merging with the United States, while his foreign minister added that the country will "never back down" in the face of Trump's threats.

A 'burning' world

He slammed Biden on the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, as well as US foreign policy in Ukraine and Syria, reiterating the common erroneous assertion that America "had no wars" during his first administration and taking credit for the downfall of ISIS.

"Now I'm going into a world that's burning with Russia and Ukraine and Israel," he remarked. 

Much of the event was devoted to criticizing Biden, whom Trump accused of being behind the several legal issues he faces, including the potential release of a federal probe into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and a sentence scheduled for Friday in his New York hush-money case.

He slammed him on inflation and promised to revoke the Democrat's executive order prohibiting offshore oil and gas drilling off large stretches of US coastline.

Russian concerns understood by Trump

Trump acknowledged Russia's opposition to Ukraine's admission to NATO, citing that he "can understand their feeling about that" and expressing that there were "a lot of mistakes made in that negotiation," referring to Russia's demand that NATO never involve itself with Ukraine. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has often stated that Ukraine's potential participation in NATO endangers Russia's security. In June 2024, Putin stated that abandoning Ukraine's ambitions to join NATO was one of the conditions under which Moscow would be willing to end the war and begin peace talks.

Regarding NATO allies, he reiterated his demand that they increase their defense expenditure to 5% of GDP, reinforcing his long-held allegation that they are underpaying for US security.

"They all can afford it, but they should be at five percent, not two percent," the next US president told reporters.

In 2023, the transatlantic alliance's 32 nations agreed to a minimum level of defense spending of 2% of GDP, and Russia's war in Ukraine has prompted NATO to bolster its eastern flank and increase investment.

Trump is not the first high figure to advocate for an increase; NATO leader Mark Rutte stated last month that "we are going to need a lot more than two percent."

In his first major address since becoming NATO secretary-general, Rutte warned that European nations were unprepared for the possibility of potential conflict with Russia, urging them to "turbocharge" their defense spending.

Trump announces $20 billion Emirati investment

Back to the main reason for the conference, Trump announced a $20 billion Emirati investment in US data centers, aiming to bolster his claims of garnering fresh economic backing before becoming president.

"The investment will support massive new data centers across the Midwest, the Sun Belt area, and also to keep America on the cutting edge of technology," Trump told reporters.

"Artificial intelligence is very big into the data centers, and that's going to be a very hot item in the coming years."

Trump stated that the deal was with DAMAC Properties, with whom he has a longtime commercial connection, including a golf club in Dubai.

Hussain Sajwani, the chairman of DAMAC, has been a close friend of the Trump family and supported the president-elect during the attack on the Capitol in 2021 when other corporations turned him down.

The newest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence have produced a significant demand for data centers, with major technology companies investing heavily to establish new infrastructure throughout the world.