Donald Trump’s tough talk—Buy Greenland! Take back Panama Canal!—sparks defiance from many Republican rebels

Donald Trump says it is "an absolute necessity" for our country to own Greenland.

He says the U.S. should take back the Panama Canal unless the "ridiculous" shipping fees are lowered.

He threatened that any Republican who opposed him on the bill to avoid a government shutdown can and should be primaried.

The president-elect is earning his reputation as a disruptor, with enough influence over what is now his party to blow up carefully negotiated bipartisan compromises. Let’s look at each of these.

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Trump tried in his first term to buy Greenland, which is controlled by Denmark but under home rule. That went nowhere, though it created a diplomatic crisis with Danish officials.

While the U.S. built the Panama Canal in the early 20th century, it was turned over to Panama under a treaty approved by both countries. Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino says "every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent zone is Panama’s and will continue to be so. The sovereignty and independence of our country are not negotiable."

That didn’t stop Trump from posting an AI image of an American flag flying over a waterway presumed to be the canal.

The incoming president has certainly demonstrated the ability to engineer primary challenges to those who cross him. But three dozen conservative Republicans voted against him on the government shutdown bill, including on final passage, which dropped his demand to eliminate the debt ceiling during his term. Would he really gin up primaries against all of them?

So the overwhelming likelihood is that the status of Greenland, the Panama Canal and rebellious Republicans won’t change in the second term.

The reason Trump does this is that it reinforces his role as a disruptor, someone taking on the decrepit Washington establishment, even though a president, by definition, is the new establishment. 

Beyond that, whether he’s making outrageous demands or not, Trump shapes, and often dominates, the news agenda. As the 47th president has acknowledged to me, he sometimes crosses the line because he knows it will provoke a strong media reaction. As Trump sees it, even negative coverage is good coverage because the press is playing on his turf.

And sometimes these are just negotiating positions to win concessions, as with the threatened 25 percent tariffs against Canada and Mexico. 

Remember, most people outside the media-political complex aren’t breathlessly following these developments. Since the government didn’t actually close down, they don’t see it as a setback for Trump that he didn’t get most of what he wanted. They probably don’t recall that he tried to buy Greenland before.

What Trump clearly has the power to do is to blow up carefully crafted bipartisan agreements. He did it after Speaker Mike Johnson–whose own future is in doubt because, like Kevin McCarthy before him, he didn’t have the votes–let the bill grow into a Christmas tree monstrosity. 

And he did it during the campaign when both parties agreed on a tough border enforcement deal, which was then trashed by Trump’s objections.

But there are clearly limits to Trump’s ability to shape events, especially with the country. For three dozen Republicans to defy him on as fundamental a matter as the debt ceiling shows that he can only push his party so far.

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Rep. Nancy Mace, a Trump supporter who voted against him on final passage–told me on Sunday’s Media Buzz that was because she wants to keep the debt ceiling.

But with the GOP clinging to a 1-vote House margin, for now, the cauldron of campaign rhetoric is running up against the cold, hard math of getting to the number 218. 

Democrats have to wonder if it’s worth negotiating with the other party if they’re just creating a target for Trump’s demolition derby.

It was Elon Musk who first tweeted about how bad the original bill was–at Trump’s suggestion–and after 70-plus tweets (including some falsehoods), the new president was drawn into the fight. 

Over the weekend, Trump denied that he had surrendered his presidential powers to his billionaire buddy, and half-mockingly said Musk could never be president: 

"You know why? He wasn’t born in this country. Hahaha."

A favorite media parlor game is whether the two strong-willed men will eventually have a falling out.

For now, though, Trump’s tough talk about Greenland and the Panama Canal shows that he’s most comfortable playing offense, even if nothing much comes of it.

In other news:

--The House Ethics report says Matt Gaetz "regularly" paid women for sex, including with an underage girl, and used illegal drugs.

In 2017, the former attorney general nominee "engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl," who was also paid.

Gaetz used or had possession of such illegal drugs as cocaine and Ecstasy "on multiple occasions," and also accepted lucrative gifts, such as transportation and lodging in the Bahamas.

"Many of the women interviewed by the committee were clear that there was a general expectation of sex," with one woman telling the committee Gaetz paid her more than $5,000 and that sex was involved "99 percent of the time."

The panel said Gaetz was "uncooperative" and that he "knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct the committee’s investigation of his conduct." The Justice Department investigated but brought no charges.

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Gaetz also misused House resources when he had his chief of staff "assist a woman with whom he engaged in sexual activity in obtaining a passport, falsely indicating to the U.S. Department of State that she was a constituent…

"There was substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress."

If Gaetz was still in the running for AG, this would have blown him out of the water.

Says Gaetz: "I was charged with nothing: FULLY EXONERATED. Not even a campaign finance violation. And the people investigating me hated me. Then, the very 'witnesses' DOJ deemed not-credible were assembled by House Ethics to repeat their claims absent any cross-examination or challenge from me or my attorneys. I’ve had no chance to ever confront any accusers. I’ve never been charged. I’ve never been sued." He says he even sent money to women he wasn’t dating.

--A dogged reporter the Dallas Express discovered what happened to Texas Rep. Kay Granger, who went "missing" months ago. He found her, and got on-the-record confirmation, at a nursing facility that specializes in dementia and other memory problems. She put out a statement about health challenges that utterly missed the point: How could she not tell her constituents about this? Why did she insist on hiding it? There would have been enormous sympathy for her. Instead, the congresswoman kept it all shrouded in secrecy.

--Actress Blake Lively was the target of an online smear campaign, as laid out in texts and emails that blatantly discuss planting stories to ruin her reputation, while cautioning that this must remain secret because they can’t very well admit that they are trying to "bury" her. "You know we can bury anyone."

Lively obtained these documents through legal action against her co-star and director, Justin Baldoni, and reviewed by the New York Times. She is alleging sexual harassment, saying Baldoni and others routinely came into her trailer unannounced when she was topless, such as having body makeup removed, or breast-feeding.

The Wayfarer studio said that the company and its PR people "did nothing proactive or retaliatory" against the actress, accusing her of "another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation."

Lively says Baldoni tried to add unneeded sex scenes, had improvised unwanted kissing and discussed his sex life, including instances in which he may not have gotten consent. Another member of the team showed her a video of his wife naked.

The sad thing is that this sort of thing goes on all the time. We just happened to get the goods this time, with Lively being portrayed as difficult, tone-deaf and a bully.

--The Daily Mail reported that Jeff Bezos was going marry his fiancé Lauren Sanchez this weekend in a $600 million extravaganza in Aspen.

The Amazon founder, who owns the Washington Post, says that’s a crock:

"This whole thing is completely false — none of this is happening…

"The old adage ‘don’t believe everything you read’ is even more true today than it ever has been. Now lies can get ALL the way around the world before the truth can get its pants on. So be careful out there folks and don’t be gullible."

Good for Jeff for punching back against a crappy story.