Trump's latest 'troll' is clearly just a 'dominance play': NYT's Maggie Haberman

Any notion that President-elect Donald Trump is riffing when he suggests buying Greenland is flatly wrong, but his suggestions to annex Canada are clearly a "troll" meant to be a "dominance play," CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins and New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said Tuesday.

"The idea that he's just coming up with this on the fly, that's not the case," Collins told fellow CNN anchor Anderson Cooper on Tuesday evening, referring to his remarks about purchasing Greenland.

Trump has floated purchasing the massive island from Denmark since at least 2019 — even tasking some foreign policy aides at the time including John Bolton to identify specifics, Collins noted.

"It kind of blew up and never really went anywhere after it became public in a report by the Wall Street Journal," she said. "But it's certainly something he's entertained."

Additionally, Trump has become fixated on the Panama Canal in recent weeks.

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"It is something that he has gone on and on about at length, talking about that, talking about Chinese influence and it's something that he's increasingly serious about when he's talking about it behind the scenes," she said, noting Panamanian officials have insisted there have been no such negotiations yet about the canal.

Collins noted that what surprised some even in Trump's orbit on Tuesday was his insinuation he hadn't ruled out taking the Panama Canal with military force.

"That's really what's going to be the question there because that's different than any kind of negotiation or treaty about security. That is Trump saying he isn't ruling out using the military to achieve his interest here," Collins concluded.

Haberman agreed with Collins' reporting, particularly her characterization of Trump's remarks about Greenland.

"These things are not all the same. Panama is a relatively new focus of his, as Kaitlan said. Greenland — not only has he been talking about it for some time, a lot of people have been talking about it. This idea of acquiring Greenland for strategic purposes has happened for decades," said Haberman.

The idea was suggested to Trump by billionaire Ron Lauder — an heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics company — and it's "never totally gone away," said Haberman.

"Trump is clearly in an expansionist mindset. He also keeps talking about Canada as a 51st state. That is clearly much more of a troll and sort of a dominance play," she said.

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