January 13, 2025
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s flurry of transition pronouncements has made it abundantly clear that the decadeslong era of U.S. passivity in the Western Hemisphere is over. Trump is not simply pronouncing the potential U.S. acquisition of the Panama Canal and Greenland; rather, by his very choice to inveigh on strategic topics in the United States’ own hemisphere and appoint officials focused on the region even before the start of his tenure, he is signaling a profound shift in Washington’s posture toward its backyard.