Our "anti-war" president

The war in Ukraine continues and Trump has officially called for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, but that isn't what I wanted to talk about.
I prefer to discuss our brewing new conflicts.

Mexico:

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth won’t rule out military action in Mexico to prevent drugs from crossing America’s southern border amid the Trump administration’s renewed effort to crack down on transnational crime.

Speaking with Fox News on Friday night, the former network host said “all options will be on the table” after President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating “certain international cartels (the Cartels) and other organizations” as foreign terrorist organizations.

Panama:

Marco Rubio’s weekend visit to Panama is set to offer clues to a pressing question: whether the next four years of American policy will more closely resemble an imperial conquest or a hardball real estate negotiation.

On the ground here, members of the country’s small political elite have been bracing for either: As tensions over the Panama Canal ratcheted up last month, Panama’s former president, Ernesto Pérez Balladares, sat in his office on the 10th floor of a bank building and contemplated the worst-case scenario: an American invasion. “I think there will be many, many casualties on our side,” he said, “and international condemnation of the U.S.”

Greenland:

The research by YouGov, shared exclusively with the Guardian, comes after weeks of tension between Denmark, Greenland and the US over Donald Trump’s repeated assertions that he plans to take control of the autonomous territory, which is part of the Danish kingdom.

The Arctic island, which has a population of 57,000 people, was formerly ruled as a colony by Denmark, which continues to control its foreign and security policy. Trump’s interest in Greenland comes at a time of growing momentum for its pre-existing independence movement.

The poll of just over 1,000 people in Denmark, conducted between 15 and 22 January, found that 46% considered the US to be either “a very big threat” or “a fairly big threat” to Denmark.

This is higher than the number who said they considered North Korea or Iran a threat – of which 44% and 40% did respectively. But the threat of Russia remains considerably higher; 86% of respondents said they considered Moscow a threat.

Of those surveyed, 78% said they would oppose Greenland being sold to the US, but 72% said the final decision should be Greenland’s, not Denmark’s.

Trade War:

On Saturday, President Donald Trump made good on his promise to impose steep tariffs on America’s three largest trading partners — Canada, China and Mexico — citing a national emergency on the flow of fentanyl and undocumented immigrants into the United States.

The action, which is expected to take effect on Tuesday, includes a 25% duty on all imports from Mexico and most goods from Canada (there’s a 10% carve-out for energy-related items such as crude oil), and an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods imported into the United States.

Trump has used and promised to employ tariffs for three primary purposes: to raise revenue, to bring trade into balance and to bring rival countries to the negotiating table.

However, economists warn that these moves negatively impact American businesses and consumers, many of whom are still reeling from the sharp rise in inflation in recent years.

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