This is the Cato Daily podcast for Thursday, January 23rd, 2025.

I'm Caleb Brown.

It's not exactly clear what Donald Trump wants with respect to Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal.

But what is clear is that the executive branch of the federal government has a great deal of authority over trade.

And that authority,

if not clawed back by Congress, can and probably would be used to, again, pressure countries to

behave in specific ways. Cato's Doug Bendow and Clark Packard comment.

Doug, depending on who you talk to,

uh,

one of the claims is,

well,

we should take,

uh,

Donald Trump's pronouncements on these subjects,

uh,

seriously,

but not literally,

literally not seriously,

neither seriously nor literally or both seriously and literally. And so, literally, literally, not seriously, neither seriously nor literally, or both seriously and literally.

And so to begin, how seriously should we take the threat, and I would characterize some of these statements as threats to nearby countries.

Well, I would take his interest very seriously. I think he's quite concerned about them,

Canada, Greenland, and Panama. I'm not sure I'd take his threats quite literally or seriously at the moment, in part

...