A common pattern across Donald Trump‘s second term is him making statements that sound like a joke, right up until they become reality. For example, just recently we saw him teasing the renaming of Lake Ontario to “Lake America”, which appeared to be empty posturing against Canada right up until he signed an executive order making it so.
That came on the heels of Trump renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”, and just recently teasing plans to rename the state of New Mexico to “New America”. But now, judging by a Truth Social post yesterday, he may be considering going much, much further.
Trump posted an image showing the entire continent as seized by the United States. This posits a future where the USA has invaded or seized Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Cuba, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Jamaica, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti.
“Treating other countries like hotel stationery”
On the face of it, this is a ridiculous and unlikely proposition. In pure economic terms, perhaps there’s an argument for the United States invading Canada, but granting US citizenship to the populations of various Central American nations feels like a political non-starter.
But Democratic strategist Michelle Kinney is urging everyone to “take it seriously”. In comments on X, she claimed, “As always, he is telling us what the plan is”. Others took a slightly less alarmist position, with one saying, “This is not strategy. It is a man treating other countries like hotel stationery he can rebrand,” and another, “He is fighting not to let immigrants into America, and then without seeing the contradiction, he want to take all these people in at once.”
Others wondered how the world would react if, say, Xi Jinping or Vladimir Putin posted a map showing their countries invading their neighbors. Carl Bildt, co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations and former prime minister of Sweden, said, “What would we do and say if the Chinese president posted a map of China taking over the Western Pacific?”
Perhaps this is just another case of Trump seeing an image he thinks is funny and reposting it to his social media. Perhaps it’s just a piece of provocation he knows will stir up a hornet’s nest of controversy. Or, perhaps, we really are looking at the ambitious endpoint of Trump’s mission to claim as many nations as possible in the name of the United States of America.
Published: Sep 8, 2026 05:20 am