President-elect Trump has renewed his threat to respond with violence if Hamas does not release hostages held in Gaza.
President-elect Donald Trump: “If they’re not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East.”
Reporter: “Can you elaborate?”
President-elect Donald Trump: “And it will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone.”
Trump made the remarks during a wide-ranging and rambling news conference at Mar-a-Lago Tuesday in which Trump repeatedly lied, aired grievances about the many legal cases against him and threatened to use the Pentagon to expand U.S. territory. In an extraordinary exchange, Trump refused to rule out military action to take control of Greenland and the Panama Canal.
President-elect Donald Trump: “We need them for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military.”
Reporter: “[inaudible] that you will not use military [inaudible]?”
President-elect Donald Trump: “I’m not going to commit to that now. It might — it might be that you’ll have to do something.”
Trump threatened to use “economic force” to absorb Canada into the United States. He continued his push later in the day on social media, posting maps showing Canada as part of the U.S. In reply, Canada’s outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded there’s not a “snowball’s chance in hell” the two countries would merge.
Trump also hinted at pardons over the January 6 insurrection, repeating the lie that none of the rioters carried guns into the Capitol. And Trump proposed changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America as he continued his attacks on immigrants. We’ll have more on Trump after headlines.
