Politics
Republican bill seeks to greenlight Trump’s takeover of Greenland – National TenX News
A Republican congressman has introduced legislation that would give U.S. President Donald Trump the authority to annex Greenland and even make it a U.S. state, despite opposition from other members of the party to the threatened takeover of a NATO territory.
Rep. Randy Fine of Florida, a staunch Trump ally, announced his Greenland Annexation and Statehood Act on Monday as a bid to support Trump’s national security goals in the Arctic and “put our adversaries on notice.”
The two-page bill would authorize Trump to “take such steps as may be necessary, including by seeking to enter into negotiations with the Kingdom of Denmark, to annex or otherwise acquire Greenland as a territory of the United States.”
It would also create a framework for Trump to seek expedited congressional approval “to admit the newly acquired territory as a state.”
Fine told Fox News it was important to “say the Congress stands behind” Trump’s desire for Greenland and argued U.S. ownership would benefit the territory’s population.
“The poverty rate in Greenland is much, much higher than it is in Denmark. The country is run by socialists, and it is not in America’s interests to have a territory that large between the United States and Russia run by socialists,” Fine said.
Trump has long argued the U.S. should control Greenland but has escalated his rhetoric in recent weeks, saying a takeover will happen “whether they like it or not.” The White House has repeatedly declined to rule out military action, though Trump and other administration officials have said a negotiated deal or purchase is preferable.
Asked if he would support using military force, Fine told Fox News, “I think the best way to acquire Greenland is voluntarily.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to meet with Danish and Greenlandic officials in Washington on Wednesday.
Greenland’s government has grown more forceful in pushing back against Trump, saying this week it “cannot accept” a U.S. takeover “in any way” and affirming the territory’s security is a NATO responsibility.
“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and Greenland party leaders said in a joint statement Friday.
Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for business and mineral resources, said Tuesday that people in Greenland are “very, very worried” about the U.S. rhetoric, which she called “unfathomable.”
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“People are not sleeping, children are afraid, and it just fills everything these days. And we can’t really understand it,” Nathanielsen said at a meeting with lawmakers in Britain’s Parliament.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand have voiced support for Greenland and Denmark’s sovereignty without directly criticizing Trump’s comments. Anand is set to attend the opening of Canada’s new consulate in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, in the coming weeks.
Republicans push back on Trump’s aims for Greenland
Although Fine and some other Republicans in Congress have voiced support for Trump’s vision of a Greenland under U.S. control, there are others in the party who have pushed back.
After Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller made the case for acquiring Greenland and asserting the U.S. as a “superpower” in a CNN interview last week, Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska called the comments “really dumb” on social media.
A separate post by Bacon said it was “embarrassing for the U.S.” after a group of NATO allies issued a joint statement reaffirming Greenland’s sovereignty.
“I hope Republicans stand up against this universally,” he told CNN. “This is appalling. Greenland is a NATO ally. Denmark is one of our best friends … so the way we’re treating them is really demeaning and it has no upside.”
Bacon has also signed onto a Democratic bill introduced in the U.S. House on Monday that would block Trump from taking military action against any NATO member, which would include Greenland.
Republican Rep. Blake Moore of Utah and Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who co-chair the bipartisan Congressional Friends of Denmark Caucus, said in a joint statement that seeking to acquire Greenland “needlessly undermines” cooperation with Denmark and NATO.
“Sabre-rattling about annexing Greenland is needlessly dangerous,” the pair said. “The Kingdom of Denmark is a NATO ally and one of America’s closest partners. An attack on Greenland — a crucial part of that alliance — would tragically be an attack on NATO.”
Opposition has been wider in the U.S. Senate, where multiple senators have had harsh words against the possibility of U.S. military action.
“To invade Greenland and attack its sovereignty — a fellow NATO country — would be weapons-grade stupid,” Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana told reporters last week.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, in an interview with ABC on Sunday, acknowledged Greenland could be a national security asset for the U.S. but that Trump’s approach was not winning support from Greenlanders or Republicans.
“Let’s say you wanted to buy Greenland — and I’m not disputing that that might be something we might want,” he said. “You don’t get there by angering and denigrating the people who live there and saying, ‘We’re going to march the Marines in and take it if you don’t sell it to us.’ It doesn’t make them very willing to sell to us.
“I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone in Greenland for it, but you’d also be hard-pressed to find somebody in Washington who’s for a military invasion on either side of the aisle.”
Paul’s fellow Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former longtime Republican leader in the Senate, said in a statement that “threats and intimidation by U.S. officials over American ownership of Greenland are as unseemly as they are counterproductive.”
“The northernmost reaches of the globe may well shape our strategic competition with major adversaries like Russia and China for decades to come. But if America behaves as though winning that competition requires trampling the sovereignty, respect, and trust of our allies, we will surely lose it.”
Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina issued a joint statement with Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire urging the Trump administration to respect Denmark and Greenland’s statements that the territory “is not for sale.” The two senators co-chair the bipartisan Senate NATO Observer Group.
Many of the statements have noted Denmark matches the U.S. in its share of GDP spent on defence and efforts to boost its military presence in Greenland, as well as a 1951 treaty that allows the U.S. to do the same under NATO cooperation.
A number of the Republicans who have criticized Trump — including Bacon, McConnell and Tillis — have announced their plans to retire ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
A bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation is headed to Copenhagen for meetings on Friday and Saturday in an attempt to show unity between the United States and Denmark.
Politics
IMF chief backs Jerome Powell, U.S. Fed independence amid Trump pressure – National TenX News
International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva on Thursday underscored the importance of keeping central banks independent and threw her support behind beleaguered Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who is facing a Trump administration investigation for renovation cost overruns.
Georgieva told Reuters in an interview that there was ample evidence that central bank independence worked in the interest of businesses and households, and that evidence-based, data-based decision-making is good for the economy.
The IMF managing director said she had worked with Powell and respected his professionalism.
“I have worked with Jay Powell. He is a very good professional, very decent man, and I think that his standing among his colleagues tells the story,” she said, when asked about a letter of support signed by her predecessor, Christine Lagarde, now head of the European Central Bank, and other large central banks.
Powell on Sunday disclosed that the Trump administration had opened an investigation into him over cost overruns for a $2.5 billion project to renovate two historical buildings at the Fed’s Washington headquarters complex.
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Powell denies wrongdoing and has called the unprecedented actions a pretext to put pressure on him for not bowing to U.S. President Donald Trump’s long-running demands for sharply lower interest rates.
The probe has sparked widespread criticism from some key members of Trump’s Republican Party in the U.S. Senate, which must confirm his nominee to succeed Powell, along with foreign economic officials, investors and former U.S. government officials from both political parties.
Trump has repeatedly derided Powell’s leadership of the Fed and attacked him, often personally, over what he sees as the Fed chair’s slow moves to cut interest rates. On Wednesday, he dismissed concerns that eroding central bank independence would undermine the value of the U.S. dollar and spark inflation, telling Reuters, “I don’t care.”
Georgieva said the IMF looked carefully at issues such as monetary and financial stability, as well as the strength of a country’s institutions. It was specifically interested in the Fed, given the role of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency.
“It would be very good to see that there is a recognition … that the Fed is precious for the Americans. It is very important for the rest of the world,” she said.
Trump has also attempted to fire another Fed official, Governor Lisa Cook, who has challenged her termination in a legal case that will be argued before the Supreme Court next week.
B.C. Premier David Eby spoke to reporters on Thursday morning from Mumbai, India, during his six-day trade mission.
He said that mining and energy companies in India are showing an interest in B.C.
“They are looking strongly to LNG as one of their ways of reducing carbon intensity, as well as reducing smog in the country,” Eby said.
“And so B.C. LNG has been an item of considerable interest, especially the projects that are reaching final investment decision over the next year — LNG Canada Phase 2, KSI Lisims LNG — as well as the projects that are under construction like Woodfibre LNG.”
Eby was also asked about the rise in extortion cases in B.C.
He said the province’s extortion task force will provide an update next week.
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“We have assembled a remarkable and historic task force, RCMP, CBSA,” Eby said.
“There are more police in Surrey right now than there have ever been. The RCMP has surged resources into the community.”
Eby said he has not been happy with the fact that there has been no update from the task force and he has asked them to provide one.
“There have been some important developments, people deported, an arrest here in India, cooperation between the Indian government and the Canadian government on this at the law enforcement level,” he added.
“That needs to continue, but, bluntly, we need better results, we need to see more arrests and whatever we can do to support the police to get the job done, we will do so.”
As of Jan. 12, Surrey police said there have been 16 reported extortion incidents in the city since the beginning of the year.
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Amid persistent doubts over the future of the Canada-United States-Mexico trade agreement (CUSMA), Mexico’s Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard insisted on Thursday that the agreement remains firmly intact and that the three countries will close a deal to extend it.
“We’re already in the treaty review phase, and we have to finish by July 1; that’s our deadline,” Ebrard said during Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s daily morning press conference.
“We have made good progress on all the points that concern each of the parties.”
Ebrard’s comments were his first on the topic since U.S. President Donald Trump again cast doubt on the treaty’s future earlier this week.
“There’s no real advantage to it, it’s irrelevant,” Trump said on Tuesday, as he toured a Ford factory in Dearborn, Michigan.
The trilateral trade agreement, known as USMCA, replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement in 2020 and is a backbone of Mexico’s economy.
The treaty, which was negotiated during Trump’s first term, requires the three countries to hold a joint review this year to extend the pact.
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If extended, the treaty will remain in place another 16 years. If not, it is subject to annual reviews.
Technically, July 1 is a key date in the treaty’s review process, but many analysts expect negotiations to extend late into 2026 and said Trump will likely avoid extending the treaty before the U.S. midterm elections in November.
Trump’s recent threats to pursue military action against cartels have also added a new layer of uncertainty to U.S.-Mexico relations.
“I think Ebrard is betting on a best-case scenario, but the window for a July successful review is closing fast,” said Alexia Bautista, a former Mexican diplomat and lead Mexico analyst at the political risk consultancy firm Horizon Engage.
“Given recent events and statements, the risk is that Trump injects security into the process, turning the trade review into a far more political negotiation.”
Pedro Casas, chief executive of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico, said he expects the U.S. will continue imposing tariffs on a wide spectrum of Mexican exports, regardless of the treaty’s future.
The Trump administration has imposed sweeping 50 per cent duties on steel and aluminum exports to the U.S., along with a 25 per cent tariff on cars shipped from Mexico, even when those vehicles comply with the terms of the trade deal.
“I think the most likely scenario is a positive review process where we agree to extend the treaty for another 16 years, but steep tariffs still remain on Mexican exports that undermine the strength of the agreement,” Casas said.
IMF chief backs Jerome Powell, U.S. Fed independence amid Trump pressure – National TenX News
B.C. Premier David Eby says province’s LNG, mining of interest to India TenX News
Mexico confident CUSMA will remain as Trump suggests it could expire – National TenX News
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