Jonathan P. Baird

A surprising aspect of President Trump’s second term has been the expansionist threats directed at Greenland, Canada, and Panama. During the presidential campaign last fall, Trump presented himself as a peace candidate. It is hard to know how seriously to take the imperialist talk.

The aggressive rhetoric harkens back to a 19th century-like world view when colonial powers sought to carve up Africa, Asia and Latin America. In that era, the colonial powers saw the Third World as a source of raw materials, cheap labor and a market for manufactured goods. The colonialists scrambled for power and control over territories.

That world order was rooted in colonial imperialism. Imperialism has been the most powerful political force in the world over the last 400 years. Imperialism can be defined as the process whereby the dominant politico-economic interests of one nation expropriate for their own enrichment the land, labor, raw materials and markets of another people.

While Trump’s imperialist threats are shocking, they are not inconsistent with America’s imperialist past and our unique form of empire. Our imperialism has had a different operational mode than classical European colonialism.

Our imperialism has been more about maintaining freedom of capital access so American business can expand and do business wherever. For the most part, we have not needed colonial imperialism where colonizers engage with a host of ugly problems like control of riots and rebellions. That level of control has mostly not been needed.

American control is insured by our network of hundreds of military bases around the world. We have our own rapid response teams where Special Forces or other military can be employed to put down unrest. Our rulers also effectively work with leaders who will collaborate with American interests. People like Chilean Gen. Augusto Pinochet or President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador are examples. Economic self-interest is often the glue that promotes American imperialism.

Of course, our history does have its colonialist period. Leaving aside the settler-colonialist aspects of our country’s origins which could be considered, I would cite the William McKinley presidency in 1898 when the U.S. annexed Hawaii, seized Puerto Rico and the Philippines after the Spanish-American War. We also took Guam. The war with the Philippines dragged on because Filipino nationalists were no more inclined to accept being an American colony than being a Spanish colony.

President McKinley is the president Donald Trump reveres. He was both a protectionist famous for his tariff policy and an imperialist.

For the Americans, the Filipino war was fought in the name of civilizing and uplifting the Filipino people. It was a time when empire was less ambiguously viewed and racism was a core value in the white world. Rudyard Kipling, a strong advocate for empire, wrote his poem “The White Man’s Burden: An Address to the United States”. The poem begins:

“Take up the White Man’s burden –
Send forth the best ye breed –
Go, bind your sons to exile
to serve your captives need;
To wait, in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild –
Your new-caught, sullen people
Half-devil and half-child”

Mark Twain was a friend of Kipling but he became so horrified by the war in the Philippines that in 1900 he declared himself “an anti-imperialist”. Twain became Vice-President of the Anti-Imperialist League of New York and the most famous anti-imperialist in the country. Twain wrote:

“There must be two Americas. One that sets the captive free, and one that takes a once-captive’s new freedom away from him, and picks a quarrel with him with nothing to found it on; then kills him to get his land.”

Since the era of Twain and Kipling, America has tried to hide its empire. But whenever countries have tried to escape the imperialist straitjacket they have paid a heavy cost. Vietnam and Chile during the Salvador Allende period immediately come to mind. The United States could not tolerate the existence of a possibly successful state with a nationalist identity outside of imperialist control.

Because the United States was born in an anti-imperialist revolt against Britain, our self-image doesn’t include our imperialism. Also, the map of the United States is often seen as the lower 48 states (with Alaska and Hawaii sometimes thrown in). It doesn’t include the many other territories (Guam, American Samoa, Northern Marianas Island, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) that are like colonies. The people who live in these territories don’t possess full constitutional rights.

Our history of imperialism is full of invasions, wars and misadventures but I doubt in 2025 it will act as a caution against aggression. President Trump has shown that he means what he says. He has said one way or another he will “get” Greenland. He has freaked out the entire nation of Canada with his talk of the 51st state. He talks about “reclaiming” the Panama Canal even though our Congress voted to transfer the canal to Panamanian ownership in 1978.

In his second term, Trump has thrown caution to the winds. He is swinging for the fences acting like he is Alexander the Great, not a mere president. Surrounded by sycophants and stooges who lavish praise, he sees himself as a Caesar unbound by law or courts that he treats with contempt. Unlike his first term, there are no grown-ups in the room.

Everything in his administration is about showing his dominance over others and his personal self-aggrandizement. This is a presidency without guardrails.

Such grandiosity does not bode well for Greenland, Panama or Canada.