Trump expresses desire to expand U.S. territory, use economic force to pressure Canada

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• Amna Nawaz:

  Welcome to the "News Hour."

  With Donald Trump set to enter the Oval Office in just two weeks, the president-elect expressed his desire to expand the American territory he'd govern through the use of military and economic force, if necessary.

• Geoff Bennett:

  It was part of a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, where he also proposed renaming a body of water that already has a name that predates the founding of the United States.

  Donald Trump, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. President-Elect: We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring. That covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Mr. Trump also attacked his perceived political enemies as he battles legal challenges before he takes office again.

  Our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, joins us now.

  So, Laura, what were the other takeaways from Mr. Trump's press conference today?

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Well, this was a one-hour-long, rambling press conference, Geoff.

  And in it, the president-elect talked about using force to gain control over countries and territories. He raised the possibility of using military force to secure Greenland and the Panama Canal. He also talked about using economic control to pressure Canada to acquire it.

  And he said that — as you played there, Geoff, renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. And he also said that — quote — "all hell will break out" if Hamas doesn't release hostages by the time he takes office.

  In addition to that, he said that he wants to use tariffs at a high level against Denmark to try to pressure it to cede control of Greenland to the United States. And on that idea of the annexation of Canada, Geoff, outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that — just outright rejected it on X, saying that there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that it would happen.

• Geoff Bennett:

  OK, well, as the president-elect was speaking to reporters, Judge Aileen Cannon temporarily blocked the release of special counsel Jack Smith's final report on his classified documents investigation.

  What did Mr. Trump have to say on that front?

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  The president-elect called it great news.

  And he used this press conference to also rail against not just all the legal cases that were brought against him, but special counsel Jack Smith.

• Donald Trump:

  It's called weaponization of justice. And it's happened at a level nobody's ever seen before. So many — I defeated deranged Jack Smith. He's a deranged individual. I guess he's on his way back to The Hague. And we won those cases. Those were the biggest ones.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  And so Trump did not win those cases, Geoff. Jack Smith dropped the cases against him because of the fact that Donald Trump won the election.

  The president-elect was also asked if he would pardon January 6 rioters who assaulted police officers, and he didn't answer that question. He said that rioters came to the Capitol with not one gun. And that's not true, because multiple rioters were charged with carrying firearms.

  And as well, we should note, Geoff, that today an appeals court rejected the president-elect's efforts to delay the sentencing in the New York hush money trial, which is scheduled for Friday.

  So, overall, he injected a lot of grievances in this press conference against his perceived political enemies.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Meantime, we are set to see confirmation hearings begin for Mr. Trump's Cabinet selections. Those are going to start as early as next week. Tell us more about that.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  So, next week, we have a number of key confirmations on the docket, starting with defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth on January 14, secretary of state nominee Marco Rubio on January 15, and the ambassador to the United Nations nominee, Elise Stefanik, on January 16.

  And then the attorney general nominee, Pam Bondi, is likely — her confirmation hearing will likely happen after January 20, after the inauguration. I spoke to a GOP Senate aide on the Judiciary Committee who said that they had wanted to hold that as early as next week, but they are still waiting on some financial documents and background checks for Pam Bondi.

  And so it's very likely that it'll have to go into after president-elect Donald Trump takes office. And then, lastly, Geoff, an aide on the Senate Intel Committee was telling me that it looks like Tulsi Gabbard is going to have to wait a bit longer for her confirmation hearing. Republicans had wanted it to be next week, but it looks like Tulsi Gabbard to be the director of national intelligence is going to have to wait a bit longer.

• Geoff Bennett:

  OK, Laura Barron-Lopez, our thanks to you, as always.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Thank you.

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