When 50 States Are Not Enough - 2/10/25

Since taking office again in late January, Donald Trump has raised the possibility of buying Greenland, invading Panama, and swallowing Canada whole. Last week, the president continued to add items to his cart, suggesting that the United States could take over the Gaza Strip, forcibly move two million Palestinians to neighboring countries and repair the war-scarred region into a tourist destination that he dubbed “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

By the next day, White House advisors were scaling back his plan, making it clear that neither U.S. troops nor tax dollars would be involved in the effort. But given Trump’s new fondness for international expansionism, the long-time isolationist seems to have recently developed a strong and aggressive interest in the rest of the world. What is going on?

Throughout his career, Trump has consistently espoused an America First nationalism that deprioritized our country’s diplomatic, economic and military engagement with the rest of the world. He first started making this argument in the late 20th century, when the bipartisan consensus in Washington strongly favored a robust leadership role for the U.S. on the world stage. But the years passed, and the Great Recession, the Afghanistan War, China’s increasingly assertiveness and belligerence and the Covid-19 pandemic conspired to convince exhausted Americans to refocus on our own problems here at home. By the time Trump was first elected in 2016, the electorate shared his suspicion of what they saw as globalist adventurism. In the last eight years, those feelings have only gotten stronger.

For those who have studied 20th century U.S. history, none of this should come as much surprise. After every major military conflict and every significant economic downturn since World War I, Americans have turned inward. Each time, we have withdrawn from the rest of the world, until the vacuum caused by our absence required our return. The same cycle will repeat itself again before too long, when China or Russia or Iran or North Korea – or possibly a combination of this increasingly coordinated alliance – compels our return.

But Trump’s international aggression is a new wrinkle in his brand of patriotism. It seems that he is no longer attempting to pull back from the rest of the world, but rather to extend the U.S. footprint on world maps. America still comes first, but the exceptionalism is now reflected in expansion not retreat.

Trump provided a clue of this new strategy in his inaugural address last month, when he resurrected the 19th century phrase “manifest destiny” to outline his vision for America’s future in outer space. But the term has terrestrial implications too, as the late 1800s and early 1900s marked the U.S.’ growth into a continental behemoth and world power. Trump has talked admiringly of the nation’s trajectory over this period, reflecting a long-held view among many historians that this ongoing acquisition of territory produced a frontier mentality that represented both a growing optimism and perhaps imperialism as well.

There are tangible advantages that each of these regions would provide in a closer relationship with the U.S. Greenland provides both precious metals and a geographically strategic location in the North Atlantic. The Panama Canal offers economic leverage against China. Trade policy with Canada and Gaza’s geopolitical importance are also both considerable assets. But despite the enjoyment that Trump clearly derives from his trolling of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about making the Great White North into our 51st state, his overtures toward these other regions is unlikely to result in an actual acquisition. Another type of less formal relationship such as strengthened treaties or more advantageous economic engagement would serve America’s strategic goals just as effectively.

But as usual, Trump is probably also thinking about messaging and branding. He may believe that a larger country would be a more confident country and that dramatically expanding our borders would not only bolster America’s self-image but increase the likelihood that he would be remembered by history as the transformational figure he believes himself to be. Adding a few more states, he may think, could be just the grand accomplishment that gets a president added to Mr. Rushmore.