‘It would be like Hawaii’: Republicans open to Trump’s Canada and Greenland proposal

President-elect Donald Trump kicked off his first press conference of 2025 by suggesting that he would use “economic force” to coerce Canada to enter the United States. His son Donald Trump Jr visited Greenland to explore purchasing it.

In the past, Republicans would brush off these kinds of remarks as Trump’s ravings not to be regarded while they try to cut taxes, beef up defense spending and roll back social programs. They would tell reporters they hadn’t seen the tweet.

Unsurprisingly, the divide between the House and Senate would be even more stark, with the House being far more squirrelly and more devoted to Trump while the Senate is much more staid.

Case in point, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican congresswoman and Trump superfan, introduced legislation to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” based on Trump’s desires.

But with Trump more popular than ever and with a GOP trifecta firmly in place, even some Senate Republicans have expressed openness to Trump’s proposals.

Unsurprisingly, Sen Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, a major supporter of the president-elect, praised the idea.

“It'd be like Hawaii,” he told The Independent. “Nice weather. I think it's all about national security, and so that’s all it's about.”

Tuberville said that the United States already has a military base for the US Space Force, which Trump created during his first term as president, in Greenland.

But not everybody was amused. When told about the remarks, Brian Schatz, the Democratic senator from Hawaii, looked blankly before telling The Independent, “That’s one of the most ignorant things I have ever heard.”

Tuberville, a former head coach at Auburn University who won his race largely thanks to Trump’s endorsement, supporting the president’s policies should not be surprising. Nor should the words of Sen Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, who served as Trump’s ambassador to Japan.

“If you think about the natural resources that are available there that certainly may be protected, he's deeply concerned about China obtaining access to those sorts of resources in a way that would be adverse to the United States,” he told The Independent.

Hagerty said Trump’s concerns about the Chinese Communist Party controlling the canal are valid, while the country’s president has brushed it off as “nonsense.”

But other Republican senators also told The Independent they would look into the policy.

Alaska Sen Dan Sullivan spent much of 2023 clashing with Tuberville after Tuberville put a hold on military promotions for most of 2023 in protest of a Pentagon policy to reimburse servicemembers who travel to obtain an abortion.

But Sullivan repeated Hagerty and Tuberville’s arguments about natural resources and their strategic location.

“There's some good arguments, Arctic resources, strategic Arctic location, missile defense, incredible resources, oil and gas, critical minerals. You know what that sounds like?” he said. “Alaska, man.”

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who lost his bid to become majority late last year, also said there was some historical precedent.

“Thomas Jefferson engineered the Louisiana Purchase,” he told The Independent. “Was it McKinley who negotiated the sale of Alaska?”

But Napoleon Bonaparte sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States. And the United States purchased Alaska from Russia. None of these were done without the volition of the other party like Trump has proposed.

Cynthia Lummis, the Republican Senator from Wyoming, offered a more measured response.

“I think that Canada should do what it wants to do, and that Greenland should do what they want to do,” she told The Independent. “Denmark, of course, would need to be included in those discussions, but there's so many exciting opportunities in the world that it is, I think it would be a mistake to dismiss these things as frivolous, because these are transformative ties, and it's difficult to know what form this transformation is going to take.”

Sen Todd Young of Indiana, who has always had a contentious relationship with Trump, gave more pause.

“I know it's something he's spoken to,” he told The Independent. “I would imagine that he's going to share more with Congress at a later date, so I'll respond at that time.”

Sen Bill Cassidy of Louisiana voted to convict Trump for actions on January 6, offered a more old-school response.

“I mean, obviously, I've not followed that,” he told The Independent. “I will say I prefer that the Gulf of Mexico, be called the Gulf of Louisiana”

Trump will head to the Hill later on Wednesday evening to discuss his agenda with Republicans as he prepares to re-occupy the White House. But he’s running on a tight schedule.

Republicans want to pass numerous priorities on energy, the US-Mexico border, curbing immigration and slashing taxes, to say nothing of confirming Trump’s cabinet and judicial nominations. His words about adding new territories could offer distractions to his long-term goals.