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Donald Trump has posted his traditional rambling Christmas message calling out various foes, taunting adversaries, and reiterating his desire for U.S. territorial expansionism — including retaking the Panama Canal, incorporating Canada into the union, and buying Greenland.
A Danish official said an announcement that the country is boosting defense spending for Greenland, was an “irony of fate.”
Troels Lund Poulsen, the Danish defense minister, told the paper Jyllands-Posten Tuesday that the country plans to spend a “double-digit billion amount” in krone — about $1.5 billion — to make sure they have a “stronger presence” in the Arctic.
Trump said the “ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity” for the U.S., which operates a base in the territory’s northwest.
Meanwhile, college campuses across the country are calling the nation’s more than 1 million international students back to school before Trump’s inauguration, warning that the possibility of an imminent travel ban targeting certain countries could impact their return.
At the same time, Trump allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have divided their party with recent comments lamenting the quality of the U.S. workforce.
ICYMI: Trump names nominee for Panama ambassador after suggesting U.S. would seize control of canal
Trump has nominated Miami-Dade Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera for U.S. ambassador to Panama, “a Country that is ripping us off on the Panama Canal, far beyond their wildest dreams,” the president-elect Trump announced on Christmas Eve.
“Few understand Latin American politics as well as Kevin,” Trump said.
Cabrera also served as state director for Florida in Trump’s 2020 campaign and is vice chair of Miami-Dade’s International Trade Consortium.
His nomination follows a seemingly random attack suggesting that the U.S. would seize control of the Panama Canal, part of a series of statements aimed at other countries in a signal that his administration is threatening U.S. territorial expansion to bully sovereign nations to his economic demands.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino fired back, emphasizing the canal would remain under Panama’s control.
“The sovereignty and independence of our country is non-negotiable,” he said.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House has some critics worried. Others are ready for a fight
Some of Donald Trump’s most prominent critics are bracing for impact.
“By going after me they’re just going to give me a platform,” George Conway told The Independent.
More from The Independent’s White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg on the critics preparing for a fight:
ICYMI: Biden signed 50 bills into law on Christmas Eve
President Joe Biden spent Christmas Eve signing 50 bills into law, including one piece of legislation supported by Paris Hilton and another designating the bald eagle as the U.S. national bird.
Gustaf Kilander breaks them down:
ICYMI: Nation’s largest Latino civil rights group blasts Republican figure’s viral ‘execution’ video
A video from aspiring Republican political figure Valentina Gomez shows her firing a handgun into the back of the head of a dummy tied to a chair with a black bag over its head.
“It’s that simple, public executions for any illegal that rapes or kills an American. They don’t deserve deportation, they deserve to be ended,” she says.
The widely derided video has been condemned for glorifying “the type of vigilantism that has led to deadly consequences in our nation and feeds into the anti-immigrant lie,” according to League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation’s largest Latino civil rights group.
“LULAC denounces violent crime in our nation and expresses its deepest condolences to its victims and their loved ones,” the group’s presidet Roman Palomares said in a statement.
“However, we believe in the Christian principles of justice, not retribution. Using public executions as a hook to a politically motivated message fuels blind hatred. This kind of language is intended to appeal to an extreme base of individuals who believe the lie that all immigrants are here to harm others.”
More on the backlash to the Gomez’s latest stunt:
Vivek Ramaswamy blames ‘90s sitcoms for tech companies hiring smarter immigrant workers
Vivek Ramaswamy, one of the leaders of the Trump administration’s incoming Department of Government Efficiency, blamed a series of 1990s TV sitcoms for what he saw as a decline in U.S. dynamism in science and technology, leading tech companies to hire more qualified foreign-born and first-generation workers over their mentally lazy American counterparts.
His comments follow wider tensions within the Trump coalition, which includes both far-right anti-immigration views, and an increasing embrace of the tech industry, whose workforce is highly diverse and made up of many immigrants and first-generation Americans.
The Independent’s Josh Marcus reports:
Trump inaugural fund set to break record
Trump’s inaugural fund is projected to raise more than $150 million, breaking the previous $107 million inauguration fundraising record that was set during the president-elect’s first inauguration.
‘Should MAGA stay home in 2026?’ Laura Loomer wages ‘racist’ war against ‘tech bros’ over Indian migrants
Trump acolyte and self-proclaimed “proud Islamophobe” Laura Loomer is threatening to tell MAGA to “stay home” during the next midterm elections amid an escalating feud with “tech bros” Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy over Silicon Valley’s reliance on foreign-born workers.
Justin Baragona reports:
Rudy Giuliani tells judge ‘I gave everything I have to give’ as he braces for contempt hearing
Embattled former New York City mayor and Trump’s one-time attorney Rudy Giuliani will face a contempt hearing on January 3 related to his court-ordered turnover of his property to a pair of election workers he defamed.
In a series of court filings on Christmas Eve, Giuliani pleaded with a judge to reject their demands for sanctions.
The latest on Giuliani’s legal woes:
How Trump’s inner circle is celebrating the holidays
Marjorie Taylor Greene has shared an array of messages over the holiday period varying from the more traditional photo in front of a Christmas tree, to a plea to join her in prayer this Sunday “to end abortion in America.”
Her holiday photo in front of the Christmas tree came hot on the heels of a meme she shared titled “amount of people eligible to be mass deported.”
More Christmas messages from Trumpworld, per The Independent’s Rhian Lubin:
Trump’s ‘made in USA’ bitcoin vow not based ‘in reality’
It’s unlikely Donald Trump will be able to realize his campaign promise that all remaining Bitcoin will be made in the U.S., according to observers who know the industry.
The Independent’s Josh Marcus explains:
