President-elect Donald Trump’s new focus on the Panama Canal and Greenland are part of efforts to redefine American national security in an increasingly hostile world that he will inherit from the hapless Biden-Harris administration, according to a new analysis.

“Making Canada the 51st state. Retaking control of the Panama Canal. Buying Greenland. Donald Trump made a series of Christmas pronouncements that legacy media dismissed as classic bravado unworthy of serious consideration, but those who advise the President-elect say there is a more calculating intent behind his recent social media flurry,” Just the News’ John Solomon wrote this week.

America’s incoming 47th president is said to be crafting a new strategic framework aimed at ensuring the security of the United States and Western democracies in an era where an increasingly assertive China is extending its influence well beyond its traditional Pacific sphere, he noted.

“I think Trump is looking at the world from a new geography standpoint and asking how do we increase the zone of countries that are truly committed to freedom, and how do we make sure, how do we provide a very deep security belt around the United States,” former Trump State Department policy adviser Kiron Skinner told the John Solomon Reports podcast in the Friday episode.

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In pursuit of this mission, Trump is aiming to reshape public perception with his provocative statements, urging Americans to reconsider the global landscape as U.S. influence in Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia has diminished under the Biden administration, according to experts, Solomon noted.

The Cold War paradigm that dominated strategy for over half a century is no longer relevant. Experts point to the challenges posed by a nuclear-armed North Korea, an Iran pursuing nuclear ambitions under radical Islamist leadership, and a cunningly strategic Beijing positioning its contractors at critical chokepoints of global trade. The developments demand a significant shift in strategic thinking, an area where the State Department has reportedly fallen short in recent years, Solomon continued.

“People forget that this issue has been a key one for President Trump. He has talked about the Panama Canal throughout the campaign, and he repeatedly and correctly noted that this remarkable geostrategic asset was frittered away gratis under Jimmy Carter,” Sebastian Gorka, a national security expert during Trump’s first term who will soon join the National Security Council as the incoming president’s counterterrorism chief, told Just the News.

“The fact that the port facilities at both ends of the canal would fall under the control of entities tied to China was never part of original agreement with Panama,” Gorka noted further. “The President has been clear that America’s economic might and full pallet of tariffs tools may be used to guarantee that the canal is operated in ways that comport with the economic and national interests of the United States.”

Trump’s Christmas Day posts were deliberately provocative, aimed at encouraging Americans to think on a larger scale and setting the stage for deal-making once he assumes the presidency, according to retired Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer.

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“He always goes in from a position that gets people’s attention. And then once people kind of flail around … people settle down and they start having a realistic, adult discussion,” Shaffer told Newsmax on Thursday.

“These are strategic areas that the United States needs to have dominant influence over,” former Deputy National Security Adviser Victoria Coates told the Just the News, No Noise television Thursday evening. “Start with the Panama Canal. That was President Reagan originally. That was the hallmark of his 1976 primary campaign. It’s ours. We paid for it, and that is all true. It was President Carter who subsequently just unilaterally gave it back to Panama.”

She added: “We pay exorbitant fees. Meanwhile, Panama has gone into agreements with China for special economic zones on either side of the canal. That’s intolerable. All that has to change. As for Canada, which should be a great partner to the United States, hopefully they’ll be under new leadership next month, and … we could really dominate the world energy market.”