Republican US President-elect Donald Trump held a press conference on Tuesday and spoke on a range of issues including NATO, Israeli hostages in Gaza, the US buying Greenland and his desire to take control of the Panama Canal.
He also discussed Elon Musk and the speculation of Canada becoming a US state.
Ahead of his inauguration on January 20, here are some of his key quotes.
Canada
Asked about his view that Canada should be a U.S. state, Trump said: “You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you see what that looks like, and it’s for national security. It would be much better not to do this.” Forget it, we basically defend Canada. But here’s the problem with Canada. Have a lot of friends there, I love the Canadian people, but we’re spending hundreds of billions a year to protect it. We lose billions a year to take care of Canada’s trade deficit.”
Israeli hostages in Gaza
“There will be complete devastation. If they don’t come back by the time I come into office, there will be complete devastation in the Middle East, and that won’t be good for Hamas, and that obviously won’t be good, because no Too. All hell will break loose.”
Mexico
“We have a huge deficit with Mexico, and we help Mexico a lot. They’re essentially run by cartels, and can’t let that happen, because Mexico is really in trouble, a lot of trouble, a very dangerous place. We’re going to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and it’s appropriate. Mexico needs to stop allowing millions of people into our country.
Panama Canal, Greenland
Since winning the November 5 election, Trump has talked about the US purchasing the Danish territory of Greenland and the US taking back control of the Panama Canal. He ruled out military or economic action as part of those wishes on Tuesday.
“I can say this, we need them for economic security,” Trump said. Trump did not commit to negotiating a treaty with Panama, but said: “Look, the Panama Canal is important to our country.” He said: “It’s being run by China, China, and we gave the Panama Canal to Panama. We didn’t give it to China, and they’ve abused it. They’ve abused that gift. They never built it. Should have gone.”
Elon Musk
Musk, Tesla’s chief executive and Trump’s choice to co-chair a commission aimed at cutting government spending, has criticized British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for his performance in recent days when Starmer spoke to Britain’s public Was the Director of Prosecution.
Musk has said that Starmer failed to prosecute gangs of men who raped young girls. Starmer said Tuesday that Musk knew “absolutely nothing” about the scandals he is commenting on.
Musk has also expressed support for the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Asked his reaction to Musk’s “inflammatory statements” about foreign affairs in Europe and elsewhere, Trump said: “I can say Elon is doing a good job. Very smart guy. I don’t know those guys. The ones you’re talking about were, I know he’s said some negative things about some people running for office, but it’s not that unusual.”
Trump on NATO
Trump said he believed European members of NATO should spend 5% of their gross domestic product on defense of the alliance. “I think NATO should have 5%, yes. Well, you can’t do it in two, I mean, 2% in every country, if you’re going to have one country and a regular army, You’re at 4% I think they should be, you know, they’re in dangerous territory, they can all afford it, but they should be at 5%, not 2%.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
