Peter Espeut | From the backyard to the front lawn

On Monday, September 7, Donald Trump, the president of imperial America, posted a map on Truth Social showing Canada, Greenland, Iceland (the Arctic), Mexico, Panama (and much of the rest of Central America), Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe (and most of the rest of the Caribbean), draped in the Stars and Stripes of the Flag of the United States of America. The map is labelled: “United States of America”.

There is no accompanying explanation, and so we are intended, I suppose, to draw our own conclusions. Maybe The Donald was doodling. Maybe he is trying out some new AI toy. Maybe he is giving a hint, or maybe issuing a threat, of what his intentions are over the next two years or so.

Maybe the map is Trump’s retaliation in a fit of pique at Canada’s reciprocal imposition of tariffs on some US imports, in like manner as his referring to Lake Ontario as “Lake America”, and Canada as the 51st US state. It may be Trump’s idea of a wry joke.

I have not heard of any country that has taken his post as a joke.

The image has further strained relations between Washington and Copenhagen, already stressed by Trump’s repeated calls for the US to take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen reiterated that Greenland’s government and people have repeatedly made clear that they do not want to become part of the USA. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said the post appeared to reflect Trump’s continued ambitions to expand US territorial influence. Denmark is not taking it as a joke!

NOT PUBLICLY PROPOSED

Before Monday, Trump had not publicly proposed taking over Iceland, and Reykjavik has not made light of the implications of the map. Iceland’s leaders publicly condemned it, and summoned US Ambassador Billy Long to deliver a formal rebuke. Iceland’s Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir told reporters that the post was “an insult to Icelanders, Canadians, Greenlanders”. Iceland’s Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrín Gunnarsdóttir said: “This is not a joke. And, if it is supposed to be a joke, it’s a bad one”.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum firmly stated on social media that Mexico “is not and will not be a colony or protectorate” of any foreign country. “Proudly, we are a free, independent and sovereign country”.

Our nearest neighbour, Cuba, reeling under intensified US sanctions, did not remain silent. The day after Trump’s post, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said that the island nation “will never again” be a colony of any “empire”. He wrote on X: “Cuba knows well the meaning of having been a colony and neocolony of two empires. The blood that has been shed for our independence, sovereignty and self-determination will not have been in vain, and we will defend them to the last consequences”.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez responded sarcastically that the US government would leave its citizens “geographically disoriented. Soon they will not know in which gulf, lake, building, country, continent or planet they are”.

NO REACTION

I cannot find any reaction or response from the government of Jamaica. Possibly they look forward to a US takeover of Jamaica? Maybe they think we can become the 52nd state in the Union? They need to remember that the US annexed Puerto Rico, Guam and the Marianas in 1898 and, more than 125 years later, they are still not US states.

Or, maybe, with their 200-plus per cent salary increases in their pockets, our politicians of both the green and orange variety are shivering and shaking at the thought of the takeover that is to come, and its implications for them?

Or maybe they believe that Trump has had an attack of dementia, and will soon go away, or be impeached, or removed under the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution.

I am disappointed that our highly paid leaders have chosen to remain silent in the face of this challenge to our sovereignty.

Craig Agranoff, a professor of political science at Florida Atlantic University, told Newsweek, the same day the map was posted: “When a sitting president overlays the American flag on Mexico, Canada, Iceland, Cuba and Jamaica, allies and neighbours have to respond, because silence can be read as acceptance. The practical risk is not an overnight annexation. It is that the image becomes part of a pattern that complicates diplomacy, trade talks and security cooperation. Foreign governments are right to take the symbolism seriously, even if they do not treat the map as an operational plan”.

I wish to take this opportunity to state publicly that I totally reject the suggestion that Jamaica should be annexed to the USA, or should become a US colony or protectorate. I value our status as an independent nation-state, free to choose our friends and with whom we do business.

I do not see the point of ceasing to be subjects of the King of England only to become subjects of an Emperor of the Americas, who does not even know where the Caribbean Sea is (look at his map!).

We cannot change the fact that, geographically, we happen to be located in the backyard of the USA; but we can certainly offer the strongest resistance to being forced into their front lawn to be mowed down.

The Rev Peter Espeut is an environment and development scientist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com