Trump: "I never intended to make Greenland the 51st state of the United States. I wanted to make Canada the 51st state. Greenland would become the 52nd state. Venezuela might become the 53rd state."
Trump added that these remarks should not be taken seriously.
Trump said it was a joke, but the relevant countries, including the international community, took it seriously — Trump was not joking; he indeed had ambitions to annex a country or region. Moreover, jokes are not usually on one's lips constantly; when something is constantly on one's lips, no one considers it funny.
Send Americans to Greenland as envoys to acquire the island, openly stating the possibility of military options to seize Greenland, express great anger towards the European Seven Nations' deployment (a total of 37 people) to Greenland, and threaten tariff sanctions, are these all jokes?
Moreover, turning Canada into a U.S. province — at first, it was thought to be a joke, because the international community, including Canada, did not believe it was real, because the statement was too unreasonable and absurd. But later, people realized that Trump was not joking; he was serious, although the matter was absurd. Treasury Secretary Bensinger followed up, publicly demanding to incorporate Alberta, a resource-rich province in western Canada, into the United States. The actions have made the world清醒, realizing that all these so-called "jokes" were not jokes.
Some of Trump's statements are claimed to be "jokes" (such as renaming the Gulf of Mexico), but combined with White House discussions about military options and actual tariff increases, his intentions still carry substantial threats and require careful discernment of the expression strategies used to confuse the public. Be careful that he uses "jokes" to cover up real motives.
Original: toutiao.com/article/1855981513795596/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.