Forcing Canada's hand, Hamas' last warning, Gulf of Mexico and NATO: All about Donald Trump's presser

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday refused to rule out the use of military or economic coercion to force Panama to give up control of the canal America built more than a century ago and to force Denmark to sell Greenland to the United States.

In a rambling, hourlong news conference at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, Trump also reiterated his threat that "all hell will break out in the Middle East" if the hostages being held by Hamas are not released by Inauguration Day, repeating the threat four times.

"If they're not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East," he told reporters. "And it will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone. All hell will break out. I don't have to say anymore, but that's what it is."

Trump did not elaborate during the news conference, where he delivered a hodgepodge of grievances, complaints and false claims, from the Afghanistan withdrawal of 2021 to offshore drilling to the criminal cases against him and the size of his electoral victory.

He refused to rule out using military force to retake the Panama Canal, which was given back to Panama by treaty in the late 1990s, and acquire Greenland, which Trump said was necessary for the national security of the United States.

"It might be that you'll have to do something," he said.

Trump's desire to expand the US footprint is entirely in keeping with his mindset of making whatever he controls as big as possible, going back to his series of acquisitions in the late 1980s. In recent days, Trump has talked repeatedly about buying Greenland and taking over the Panama Canal.

It was not clear how serious he was about some of his comments during the news conference. At one point, he suggested that his administration will rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

The news conference was a back-to-the-future moment for Trump, who often used similar appearances as president to seize control of the public narrative with attacks on his adversaries and bombastic and often false assertions about his accomplishments.

In an appearance in front of reporters that had been described as an economic development announcement, Trump lashed out at President Joe Biden for banning oil drilling in some waters, said the special counsel who investigated him is "deranged" and assailed the New York judge overseeing a criminal case against him.

"That's a sick group of people, and it was all to influence the election," Trump said. "It was all a fight against their political opponent. We've never had that in this country. We have had that in certain countries. We've had that in third-tier countries."

Before taking questions, Trump talked for more than a half-hour without focusing on any single topic. He ranted about Biden's focus on electric cars, saying "I don't know what it is with electric. This guy loves electric." And he complained about shower heads with restricted water flow.

"It's called rain, comes down from, comes down from heaven. And they want to do, no water comes out of the shower," he said. "It goes drip, drip, drip. So what happens? You're in the shower 10 times as long, you know. No water comes out of the faucet."

He also returned to one of his favorite targets: his hatred of windmills.

"The windmills are driving the whales crazy," he said.

The president-elect talked at length about foreign policy, criticizing Biden's handling of the war in Ukraine, the Afghanistan pullout and the conflict in Israel. He also repeated his threat not to protect NATO allies, a foundational part of the pact, if they did not increase the amount of money they spend on defense of their own countries.

At one point, he appeared to confirm a recent story in the Financial Times suggesting that he wants NATO countries to commit to spending up to 5 per cent of their economic output on defense, a significant increase.

He also criticized Canada, saying that the country should be a state in the United States because of the economic support that the United States provides to the country. He said he would not use military power to achieve that but said that he would use economic power to pressure the US neighbor.

"Why are we supporting a country, 200 million plus a year?" he told reporters and then referred to the country's prime minister. "Our military is at their disposal all of these other things. They should be a state. That's what I told Trudeau when he came down."

Trump threatened to use "economic force" to join Canada and the United States together, implying that the United States would pare back its purchases of Canadian products.

He also said he would "tariff Denmark at a very high level" if it does not give Greenland to the United States.

During the news conference, Trump was told that a federal judge had blocked Jack Smith, the special counsel who had been investigating his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, and his handling of classified documents, from releasing a report about the investigations.

"So if they're not allowed to issue the report, that's the way it should be," he said. "Why should he be allowed to write a fake report? It'll only be a fake report. That's great news."