Colombian president loosens grip after Trump imposes sanctions on the country

US President Donald Trump has begun his second term in office while making public his greed for plundering the land, trade and money of other nations, where he has openly declared his intention to seize and annex the lands of independent countries to the United States and also to monopolize lucrative contracts from Washington's allies.

In this regard, Trump has once again made his ambitions clear regarding Canada, where he has demanded control of the country's resources and its land annexation by the United States. Speaking during his recent trip to North Carolina, he called for Canada to join and become the 51st state of the United States and claimed that if it joins the United States, its citizens will benefit from significant tax exemptions, customs duties and benefit from high-quality health services. However, Canada has opposed Trump's position and demanded respect for its independence and national identity.

The US President also clashed with the Danish Prime Minister over Greenland and the US desire to control the territory. A 45-minute phone call between Donald Trump and Matte Fredriksen on January 15 sparked a heated exchange of words between the two sides. Trump, who was the US president-elect at the time, took a hard line and threatened to tax the US NATO ally. At the time, the Danish Prime Minister referred to statements by the Speaker of the Greenland Parliament that the island is not for sale and that Greenland should decide its future.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has stepped up his financial and trade demands in the very first days of his entry into the White House. His first demand in this area was directed directly at the world's largest oil producer, Saudi Arabia. Trump said that he would ask Riyadh to invest between $600 million and $1 trillion in the United States, in order to lower oil prices and at the same time put pressure on Russia.

He claimed that OPEC's oil price cuts could directly affect and ultimately end the war in Ukraine. After a phone call with Trump, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stressed that Riyadh plans to increase its investment and trade relations with the United States to $600 billion over the next four years, and that if more opportunities are provided, this number could increase.

During Trump's first term, Saudi Arabia signed nearly $500 billion in economic, trade and military deals with the United States, with Trump calling Saudi Arabia a "milking cow" during his election campaign. He went to Riyadh on his first foreign trip and initiated the Qatar boycott. Now, Trump has said he is willing to go to Saudi Arabia again on his first foreign trip of his second term if contracts worth $600 billion are signed with the Arab country.

Trump's positions and statements reflect his desire to impose US demands on other countries. In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2020, Trump declared that the United States "will serve its destiny as a lover of peace, but peace is won by force." This means disrupting the international political, geopolitical, economic and trade order and jeopardizing regional and international peace.

In this regard, Donald Trump's critics accuse him of humiliating US allies and weakening alliances with Washington. They predict that under a second Trump administration, the United States will continue to be isolated internationally, thereby harming US interests and threatening world peace.

President Trump, in his first term from January 2017 to January 2021, in line with his election slogan of "America First" and under the pretext of restoring the country's authority, in the political, military and security spheres, pressured NATO allies to increase their share of military spending to two percent of the gross domestic product of member countries.

He now wants to increase NATO members' military spending to 5 percent of their gross domestic product. In the field of trade, Trump also implemented controversial unilateral measures and, while rejecting international trade agreements, imposed high tariffs on imports into the United States to cover the US trade deficit, which in his view is a sign of US weakness in this field. Trump's statements and threats at the beginning of his second term indicate a re-implementation of the same policies.

 However, his approach to these issues has increased political, security and economic tensions between him and the international community. The continuation of his policies will undoubtedly increase differences between the United States and other countries and raise continuous tensions on various international issues.