President-elect Trump’s refusal to rule out military action to seize his ambitions of acquiring the Panama Canal and Greenland has sparked some stern responses overseas and spurred a global debate over how seriously to take the incoming president.

While it’s unclear how serious he is, the rhetoric alone has sparked concerns about imperialistic goals in his second administration, and what his endgame might be.

“It is obviously out of the question that the European Union would let other nations of the world attack its sovereign borders, whoever they are,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said in a local radio interview.

Germany Chancellor Olaf Scholz added in a press conference Wednesday that it was a “fundamental principle of law” that “borders must not be moved by force.”

While analysts don't see the threats as serious, they do think they could impact global relations. Matt Zierler, associate professor of international relations at Michigan State University, said Trump’s threats were “not credible.”

“His negotiation style is to go for the extreme rhetorical threat and then pull back from there,” he said.

But Zierler argued the threats were still concerning because they could deteriorate relations with allies.

“Not only does it weaken those relationships, but these weakened relationships weaken security overall,” he said. “By the U.S. challenging the durability and stability of the international ties, you're just increasing the uncertainty.”

Trump has not laid out any concrete plans for acquiring Greenland or the Panama Canal, but has made his desire for both clear in the days ahead of his inauguration on Jan. 20.

In a Tuesday press........

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