Daily Caller
Why Trump’s Right On The Panama Canal And Greenland
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By David Bossie
President-elect Donald J. Trump promised that if elected he would govern in bold colors, not pale pastels. Our next president believes deeply in American Exceptionalism and is making it perfectly clear that the days of America taking a back seat to anyone are over.
Trump’s optimistic vision is for our great nation to lead once again as a beacon of freedom for centuries to come, and that we must be victorious in the great battle of ideals that is currently underway. There is simply no escaping it; the United States will continue to lead the world for good or Communist China will gladly take up the mantle and lead it for evil.
Freedom, democracy, free market capitalism and individual liberty must persevere and carry the day because socialism, oppression and the road to darkness never sleep. Trump knows that America must be vigilant and that means always being on offense.
Trump has big plans for America. This starts with undisputed economic dominance and a peace-through-strength foreign policy that makes the world safe again. When America is out front leading, there is far more reason to be optimistic about the future.
Communist China wants to replace America as the world’s global superpower and Trump fully understands this — and wholeheartedly rejects it. For decades, U.S. policy toward China was naïve and wrong. China was built-up in Washington, D.C.’s corridors of power as a partner with good intentions. But Trump, the ultimate political outsider and America’s first advocate, knew otherwise.
During his 2016 campaign for president and throughout his first term in office, Trump singlehandedly changed U.S-China policy for the better. He called out China for stealing American jobs and ripping us off economically. He also called out China’s dictatorship for rampant human rights violations and their COVID-19 cover-up.
Then President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris assumed power and immediately bent to the will of the communists in Beijing. The CCP took full advantage of the weakness of the Biden-Harris administration and flexed their muscles around the world for four long years. But on January 20, 2025, when Trump once again takes the oath of office, that all stops — and not a moment too soon.
In signature Trumpian fashion, our 45th and soon to be 47th president is already showing a much-needed sense of urgency, getting busy positioning America and the world for his presidency even before he is officially sworn in. Outgoing President Biden is nowhere to be found, and there is just no time to wait for the return of American leadership on the global stage.
Look no further than Trump’s recent announcements regarding Greenland and the Panama Canal. Trump is always playing the long game and sometimes this requires four-dimensional chess. With his every move, Trump is looking at the world through the prism of what China is angling to do for the balance of the 21st century.
Trump sees the acquisition of Greenland by the United States as a matter of national security and significant strategic importance. This is simply a matter of common sense; China is expanding its influence all over the globe and it is high time for America to recognize this reality and take action. A “Greenland Purchase” — like the Louisiana Purchase — will send a message to the world that America is a strong, vibrant, future-oriented nation, laser focused on making our planet a safe place for freedom, peace and prosperity to flourish.
The same theory goes for the Panama Canal. The United States built and paid for the vitally important trade route and the worst president in history before Biden — Jimmy Carter — made a short-sighted mistake to cede control of it. The thought of future Chinese control or undue influence over the canal is a non-starter for Trump, and rightly so. Once again, common sense is guiding Trump’s thought process on this matter. China wants to dominate the world and greatly expand its interests in the Western Hemisphere, so it doesn’t take a genius to understand its lust for the Panama Canal. Once again, while it might be unpleasant to think about, America wants the canal protected for free and fair trade, and global safety and security for all. The ultimate plans of the Communist Chinese on the other hand must always be considered and for Trump, America sitting on its heels isn’t a survivable option.
When President Harry Truman famously said, “I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell,” he was talking about the tough decisions a leader must make in a complex world. Likewise, throughout the historic 2024 campaign, Trump spoke with similar honesty and transparency about the daunting task that lies before us in the years to come. Indeed, there is much work to do to get America back on the right track — and that includes making important geopolitical decisions that will make the world a safer place now and for future generations.
David Bossie is the president of Citizens United and served as a senior adviser to the Trump-Pence 2020 campaign. In 2016, Bossie served as deputy campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President and deputy executive director for the Trump-Pence Transition Team.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
The Trump administration is fighting to block a global carbon tax that a United Nations (UN) agency is attempting to pass quietly this week.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO), a UN body based in London, is meeting this week to adopt a so-called “Net-Zero Framework,” which would levy significant penalties on carbon dioxide emissions from ships that exceed certain limits. The Trump administration argues the proposal could raise global shipping costs by as much as 10%, ultimately driving up prices for American consumers.
“President Trump has made it clear that the United States will not accept any international environmental agreement that unduly or unfairly burdens the United States or harms the interests of the American people,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in a joint statement Friday.
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“The Administration unequivocally rejects this proposal before the IMO and will not tolerate any action that increases costs for our citizens, energy providers, shipping companies and their customers, or tourists,” the cabinet secretaries wrote.
This week, the UN is attempting to pass the first global carbon tax , which will increase energy, food, and fuel costs across the world. We will not allow the UN to tax American citizens and companies.
Under the leadership of @POTUS, the U.S. will be a hard NO. We call on…
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) October 15, 2025
The proposed tax is part of the IMO’s broader goal to bring global shipping to net-zero emissions “by or around” 2050. Qualifying ships that fall short of emissions targets would face taxes ranging from $100 to $380 per ton of CO2.
Notably, the tax would be paid directly by shipowners rather than governments.
The Net-Zero Framework could generate between $11 billion and $12 billion annually from 2028 through 2030, paid into a UN-controlled fund, according to University College London. Meanwhile, other estimates warn that if the global fleet misses the IMO’s targets by even 10%, the annual cost of emissions could climb to $20 to $30 billion by 2030 and potentially exceed $300 billion by 2035.
Some critics equated the proposal to “taxation without representation,” noting that an unelected committee would have the authority to set and potentially raise the tax.
The Trump administration is urging member states to reject the proposal and has threatened retaliatory measures against countries that support it. These include investigations into anti-competitive practices, visa restrictions for maritime crews, commercial and financial penalties, higher port fees for ships tied to those nations, and possible sanctions on officials promoting climate policies.
“The Trump administration is right to draw a hard line against the UN’s latest scheme to export its climate agenda through global taxes and trade barriers,” Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Isaac said the proposed carbon tax, along with other measures — including the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which requires companies to disclose environmental and social impacts — “represent an alarming attempt to impose costly, extraterritorial regulations on American businesses and consumers.”
“These measures threaten U.S. sovereignty, inflate energy and transport costs, and weaponize climate policy as a tool of economic coercion,” Isaac said. “The United States must not tolerate foreign governments using environmental pretexts to dictate how we trade, build, and move goods. President Trump’s firm stance puts American workers and energy security first, where they belong.”
Steve Milloy, senior fellow at the Energy & Environment Legal Institute, also commended the administration’s efforts to block the UN measure.
“Not only does [Trump] oppose the UN carbon tax, but he has instructed his administration to take action against nations that try to implement it against the U.S.,” Milloy told the DCNF. “I am simply in awe of his commitment to ending the international climate hoax, which has long been aimed at stealing from and otherwise crippling our country’s economy and national security.”
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
Later this week the United Nations will hold a vote on a multi-billion climate-change tax targeted squarely at American industry. Without quick and decisive action by the White House, this U.N. tax on fossil fuels will become international law.
This resolution before the International Maritime Organization will impose a carbon tax on cargo and cruise ships that carry $20 trillion of merchandise over international waters. Roughly 80% of the bulkage of world trade is transported by ship.
The resolution is intended to advance the very “net zero” carbon emissions standard that has knee-capped the European economies for years and that American voters have rejected.
This tax is clearly an unnecessary restraint on world trade, thus making all citizens of the world poorer.
It is also an international tax that would be applied to American vessels and, as such, is a dangerous precedent-setting assault on U.S. sovereignty. Since when are American businesses subject to international taxes imposed by the United Nations?
The U.S maritime industry believes the global tax would cost American shippers more than $100 billion over the next seven years if enacted.
Worst of all, if the resolution passes, it will require the retirement of older ships and enable a multi-billion-dollar wealth transfer to China, which has come to dominate shipbuilding in recent years. China STRONGLY supports the tax scheme, even though, ironically, no nation has emitted more pollutants into the atmosphere than they have. Yet WE are getting socked with a tax that indirectly pays for THEIR pollution.
Despite the fact that we pay a disproportionate share of the tax, the U.S. has almost no say on how the revenues are spent. This is the ultimate form of taxation without representation.
Even if the United States chooses not to implement the tax on domestic shipping, it will still be enforced by foreign ports of origin or destination as well as by flag states. As a result, American importers and exporters will be required to pay the tax regardless of domestic policy decisions.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy have jointly stated that America “will not accept any international environmental agreement that unduly or unfairly burdens the United States or our businesses.” They call the financial impact on the U.S. of this global carbon tax “disastrous, with some estimates forecasting global shipping costs increasing as much as 10% or more.”
The U.S. maritime industry complains that although American vessels carry only about 12% of the globally shipped merchandise, U.S. flag vessels would bear almost 20% of this tax. No wonder China and Europe are for it. The EU nations get 17 yes votes to swamp the one no vote out of Washington.
Unfortunately, right now without White House pressure, we could lose this vote because of defections by our allies.
To prevent this tax, the White House should announce a set of retaliation measures. This could include a dollar-for-dollar reduction in U.S. payments to NATO, the U.N., IMF and World Bank.
At a time when financial markets are dealing with trade disputes, the last thing the world — least of all the United States — needs is a United Nations excise tax on trade.
Stephen Moore is co-founder of Unleash Prosperity and a former Trump senior economic advisor.
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