Trumpism has often been misrepresented as isolationism. While this tendency does exist in a part of the American right, it says nothing about the territorial ambitions nurtured by the president-elect. At a press conference in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday, January 7, Trump reiterated the idea of American expansion, which he believes would validate the promise of a "golden age" made to voters. It would involve – in a world of what remains geopolitical fantasies, at this stage – the Panama Canal, Canada and Greenland.

It all starts with complaints. America, Trump claims, is a victim of its generosity and naïveté. The first example is the Panama Canal. Trump once again spoke at length about the pharaonic construction of this work of art, which "cost us the equivalent of a trillion dollars," he said.

The president-elect cited the number of workers who died of malaria on the site (some 38,000) before denouncing Democrat Jimmy Carter's 1977 decision to transfer control of the canal. "We didn't give it to China, and they've abused it," he said, complaining of taxes on American merchant and military vessels.

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