Trump declines to rule out using military force to control Greenland and Panama Canal – US politics live | Donald Trump

Key events

Meta’s decision to end factchecking on Facebook and Instagram marks a new, more partisan era for the social media titan, the Guardian’s Blake Montgomery writes in an analysis:

Meta is shifting to the right, following the prevailing political winds blowing through the United States. A more partisan era now looms for the social media giant and its corporate leaders, though Mark Zuckerberg himself has few personal politics other than ambition.

On Tuesday morning, Meta disbanded Facebook and Instagram’s third-party factchecking program. The company will also recommend more political content across its social networks.

CEO Zuckerberg announced the changes as he attempts to curry favor with Donald Trump’s incoming administration, demonstrating just how far he will go to win the president-elect’s approval.

“Recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech,” he said in a video posted on Instagram. “Factcheckers have just been too politically biased.”

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Amazon is shelling out $40m to license a documentary about Melania Trump, plus follow-up episodes in a series about the incoming first lady, Puck reports.

The documentary is directed by Brett Ratner, who is known for the Rush Hour and X-Men movie series but hasn’t had a major release since sexual assault allegations were made against him in 2017.

Here’s more on the deal, from Puck:

But I’ve also learned that Amazon is paying a cool $40 million to license the film, per three sources familiar with the deal. That price includes the Ratner documentary, which will get a small theatrical release and then appear on Prime Video, plus a previously undisclosed two-to-three-episode follow-up docuseries on the first lady. Melania will participate in both projects. (Amazon declined to comment.)

That’s quite a payday for Mrs. Trump, who is serving as an executive producer alongside Argentine producer Fernando Sulichin, who has worked with Oliver Stone on several projects, including Stone’s The Putin Interviews, which featured several sit-downs with Vladimir Putin. Music stars and big public figures can often generate eight-figure fees for participatory documentaries. And indeed, I’m told both Disney and Paramount bid for streaming rights to the Melania project. But Amazon outbid them both (neither Netflix nor Apple bid), and is paying the outsize fee for a limited license, not ownership. It’s unclear how much the first lady is personally being paid to participate and “produce” this project while her husband is in office, but I’m betting it’s a big chunk of that $40 million.

Read the full story here:

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Updated at 14.56 EST

Meta’s decision to end factchecking on Facebook comes as it adds a close associate of Donald Trump to its board of directors. Here’s more, from the Associated Press:

Meta has appointed three new members to its board of directors, including Dana White, the president and CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and a familiar figure in the orbit of the incoming president, Donald Trump.

The social media company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is also adding the auto tycoon John Elkann and the tech investor Charlie Songhurst, Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said in a Facebook post late on Monday.

Tapping White to join the board is Zuckerberg’s latest maneuver to improve ties with Trump, who was once banned from Facebook. After Trump won re-election in November, Zuckerberg dined at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, gifting him a pair of Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, and Meta donated $1m to Trump’s inauguration fund. Other big tech companies such as Amazon have donated similar amounts. Meta has also promoted its most prominent conservative, Joel Kaplan, to the company’s top policy job in another move meant to strengthen connections to conservatives.

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Updated at 14.33 EST

The Senate foreign relations committee has scheduled a meeting for next Wednesday to consider Florida senator Marco Rubio, whom Donald Trump has tapped to be his secretary of state, the Washington Post is reporting.

A hearing for New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik, Trump’s pick for US ambassador to the UN, is scheduled for the following day, according to CNN.

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Updated at 14.29 EST

New York appeals court denies Trump bid to delay hush-money sentencing

A New York appeals court judge has denied Donald Trump’s request to delay this week’s sentencing in his hush money case.

In a one-sentence ruling following an emergency hearing, Judge Ellen Gesmer denied Trump’s request for an immediate order that would spare him from being sentenced while he appeals Judge Juan Merchan’s decision last week to uphold the historic verdict, the Associated Press reported.

It was the second time in two days that Trump was denied.

In his ruling on Monday, Merchan rejected a request from Trump’s lawyers to delay the sentencing while they appealed two of the judge’s previous rulings upholding the Manhattan jury’s May guilty verdict on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

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Updated at 14.10 EST

The Republican-led House has passed its first bill of the new Congress that would require the Department of Homeland Security to take into custody undocumented immigrants charged with certain crimes.

The Laken Riley Act, named after the 22-year-old nursing student who was murdered last year by an undocumented immigrant, passed by a 264-159 vote with 48 Democrats joining all Republicans in support.

The bill would require US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain undocumented migrants charged with theft, burglary or shoplifting.

“As promised, we’re starting today with border security,” the House speaker, Mike Johnson, said ahead of the vote.

The Senate is likely expected to take up the bill for the first time on Friday, Politico reported.

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Updated at 14.00 EST

Key lines from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago press conference

“Not going to commit” to ruling out using military force to seize control of the Panama Canal and Greenland

“I’m not going to commit to that,” Trump replied, when asked if he would rule out “military or economic coercion” to put the US in charge of the Panama Canal and Greenland.

“It might be that you’ll have to do something. The Panama Canal is vital to our country”, he said.

“We need Greenland for national security purposes,” he added.

Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark, a longtime US ally and a founding Nato member. Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino, has previously rejected the notion of turning the canal back to the US, which had owned it before handing over control to Panama in 1999.

Using “economic force” against Canada

Trump, asked if he would also use the military against Canada, which he has also previously suggested the US acquiring, replied: “No, economic force.”

Renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”

Trump said he would move to try to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”, which he was a “beautiful name”.

“It covers a lot of territory,” he said. “‘The Gulf of America.’ What a beautiful name.”

Typically, the US Board on Geographic Names (BGN) sets geographic names and states that name changes must have a “compelling” reason. In the past, presidents have used executive orders to rename geographic features.

Reversing Biden’s offshore energy drilling ban

Trump vowed to immediately undo recent action by Joe Biden to ban offshore energy drilling in most federal waters.

Biden’s ban encompasses the entire Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Pacific coast off California, Oregon and Washington, and a section of the Bering Sea off Alaska.

“I’m going to put it back on day one,” Trump said. He added: “We will drill, baby, drill. We’re going to be drilling in a lot of other locations, and the energy costs are going to come way down.”

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Updated at 13.52 EST

The day so far

At a press conference convened at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Donald Trump signaled that he was serious about the United States gaining control over Greenland, the Panama Canal and Canada. He refused to rule out using military force to put Washington in charge of the two former areas, but said “economic force” could be used to merge with America’s northern neighbor. He also proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”. Meanwhile, Trump-appointed federal judge Aileen Cannon has temporarily prevented the release of justice department special counsel Jack Smith’s report into his two failed attempts to bring Trump to trial on charges related to trying to overturn the 2020 election and hiding classified material. The president-elect called her decision “great news”.

Here’s what else has happened today so far:

Donald Trump Jr arrived in Nuuk, Greenland, in what Danish officials said was a personal visit.

Meta ended factchecking on Facebook, which the company’s leaders acknowledged was a reaction to Trump’s return to power.

Enrique Tarrio, a leader of the Proud Boys militia group who is serving a 22-year sentence after being convicted of seditious conspiracy, asked Trump for a pardon.

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Updated at 13.13 EST

Trump says ‘economic force’ could be used to unite Canada, United States

Shortly before his press conference concluded, Donald Trump appeared to rule out using military force to merge Canada into the United States, instead saying he would use “economic force”.

“Canada and the United States, that would really be something. You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security,” Trump said.

He also made his usual accusation that the US ally was benefiting from its largesse:

Don’t forget, we basically protect Canada. But here’s the problem with Canada. So many friends up there, I love the Canadian people. They’re great, but we’re spending hundreds of billions a year to protect it. We’re spending hundreds of billions a year to take care of Canada. We lose in trade deficits.

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Trump says Meta ‘probably’ ended factchecking because of his threats

Donald Trump has in the past threatened Meta and other major tech firms who factchecked his statements. Asked at his press conference if he believed that Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg’s decision today to end factchecking on Facebook was related to his warnings, the president-elect replied: “Probably”.

“I think they’ve come a long way, Meta, Facebook. I think they’ve come a long way,” Trump added.

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Updated at 12.39 EST

Trump welcomes blocking of release of special counsel’s report as ‘great news’

At his ongoing press conference, Donald Trump was asked about federal judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to temporary block the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his cases against the president-elect.

Trump gave a rambling response that included several falsehoods about the now-dismissed cases, before saying:

So, what you’re saying is … I’m just hearing that, that they’re not allowed to issue the report. So, if they’re not allowed to issue the report, that’s the way it should be, because he was thrown off the case in disgrace. Why should he be allowed to write a fake report? It’ll only be a fake report. That’s great news.

Smith dismissed his two cases against Trump after he won re-election. Prior to the election, Cannon had dismissed Trump’s indictment on charges related to allegedly hiding classified documents, and Smith was appealing that decision.

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Updated at 12.41 EST

Judge temporarily blocks special counsel from releasing report into Trump prosecutions

A federal judge has temporarily stopped special counsel Jack Smith from releasing his report into the two indictments he brought against Donald Trump, Reuters reports.

The decision was handed down by Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed federal judge in Florida who presided over his case for allegedly hiding classified documents, and ultimately ordered the indictment dismissed. Here’s more on Cannon’s latest decision, from Reuters:

U.S. District Aileen Cannon, who presided over the now-dismissed case accusing Trump of illegally holding onto classified documents, directed the Justice Department not to release the report until a federal appeals court rules on a request from Trump’s two former co-defendants in the case.

Lawyers for the co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, who were charged with obstructing the documents investigation, moved late Monday to block release of the report.

Nauta and De Oliveira argued the report would improperly interfere in their case, which remains ongoing.

Smith led both the classified documents case against Trump and a second prosecution accusing Trump of attempting to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election. Both cases have since been dropped.

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Trump then elaborated on why he wants the United States to take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory that is administered by Denmark.

“We need Greenland for national security purposes. I’ve been told that for a long time, long before I even ran. I mean, people have been talking about it for a long time,” Trump said.

“You have approximately 45,000 people there. People really don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up, because we need it for national security. That’s for the free world. I’m talking about protecting the free world.”

Claiming there were “China ships all over the place … Russian ships all over the place,” he seemed to threaten Denmark with “very high level” tariffs if they do not comply.

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Trump declines to rule out using military force to control Greenland, Panama Canal

Donald Trump refused to say that he would not use military or economic measures to bring the Panama Canal and the island of Greenland under US control.

“No, I can’t assure you on either of those two,” Trump responded, when a reporter at his Mar-a-Lago press conference asked if he would rule out “military or economic coercion” to put the US in charge of the two areas.

“But, I can say this, we need them for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military. I’m not going to commit to that now … it might be that you’ll have to do something,” Trump continued. He added:

The Panama Canal is vital to our country. It’s being operated by China, China, and we gave the Panama Canal to Panama. We didn’t give it to China, and they’ve abused it.

Constructed by the United States, the Panama Canal was handed over to the Central American country in 1999. Its president has refused negotiating with Trump over its control:

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