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11:34 09.01.2025 •
Photo: AP
US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday expressed understanding of Russia's position, which opposes Ukraine accession to NATO.
"So, you know, a big part of the problem was Russia for many, many years, long before Putin said you could never have NATO involved with Ukraine. Now they have said that that has been like written in stone, and somewhere along the line, [outgoing President Joe] Biden said, no, they should be able to join NATO. Well, then Russia has somebody right on their doorstep. But I can understand their feeling about that," Trump told a press conference in Mar-a-Lago, adding that "there were a lot of mistakes made in that negotiation."
At the same time Trump declined to say when he was going to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, but added that such a meeting would not be appropriate before his inauguration on January 20.
“I know that Putin would like to meet. I do not think it is appropriate that I meet him until after [January] 20,” Trump said.
Some of the highlights from the press conference. AP reports:
Asked whether he would rule out using the military in Panama and Greenland, Trump refused to do so.
“I’m not going to commit to that. It might be that you’ll have to do something,” he said. “The Panama Canal is vital to our country.”
“We need Greenland for national security purposes,” the president-elect said. He also threatened to impose high tariffs on Denmark, while predicting the people of Greenland would welcome his plan.
“The people are going to probably vote for independence or to come into the United States,” he said.
Trump has also repeatedly talked about Canada joining the U.S. as its 51st state — rhetoric that at first sounded like trolling of outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but that has become increasingly serious.
Trump told reporters he would not use military force to annex the country of more than 40 million people that is a founding NATO partner. Instead, he threatened “economic force,” as he cast the U.S. trade deficit with Canada — a nation rich in natural resources that provides the U.S. with crude oil, cars and petroleum — as a subsidy.
“Why are we supporting a country $200 billion plus a year,” he asked, insisting the U.S. doesn’t need Canadian cars, lumber or milk.
Trump also renewed talk of steep tariffs on both Canada and Mexico in response to their handling of the northern and southern borders.
And, adding something new to the mix, he said he’d move to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
Trump repeatedly complained that President Joe Biden has been undermining his transition to power, even as other members of his team have offered praise for the current administration’s cooperation.
Trump railed against Biden’s move this week to ban offshore energy drilling on about 625 million acres of federal water, including along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea.
Biden’s actions on offshore drilling “will not stand,″ Trump said. ”I will reverse it immediately. And we will drill, baby, drill.” He pledged to take the dispute to the courts “if we need to.”
Trump cast Biden’s effort — one in a series of final actions before the Democrat leaves office — as part of an effort to undermine him.
“You know, they told me that, ‘We’re going to do everything possible to make this transition to the new administration very smooth,’” Trump said. “It’s not smooth.”
Trump believes he is now driving force in Gaza hostage talks. Trump set a clear expectation at his press conference: A deal to release the 100 hostages that remain captive in Gaza must be completed by the time he takes office in less than two weeks.
“If this deal’s not done for the people representing our nation by the time I get to office all hell is going to break out,” said Trump, hammering home a threat he’s been making since last month without detailing what those ramifications could mean.
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