New GOP Senator Grilled By Fox Host To See Whether He Backs Trump’s Wildest Foreign Policy Proposals: ‘I Think It’s a Great Idea’

Fox Business host Larry Kudlow peppered newly-sworn Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) with questions about some of President-elect Donald Trump’s more outlandish ideas about foreign policy, specifically those that involve annexing territory from allies.

Sheehy appeared with Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) on Tuesday’s Kudlow, where Larry Kudlow ran down the list of what the host called Trump’s “exotic” proposals regarding world affairs. Trump has repeatedly referred to Canada as “the 51st state” while addressing outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “Governor.” He’s suggested the U.S. acquire Greenland from Denmark. Trump has also floated the U.S. seizing the Panama Canal. For good measure, the president-elect said he wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.”

Sheehy, who is just 39 and was sworn in on Friday, appeared next to Tuberville while Kudlow asked him about some of the aforementioned ideas.

On the “Gulf of America”:

KUDLOW: [A]fter all, Senator Sheehy, when the Gulf of Mexico was named in the 16th century, there was no United States of America. Now there is a very important United States of America, and you might even say “United States of America” first. So what do you think about the “Gulf of America,” Senator Sheehy?

SHEEHY: Well, I think it’s a great idea. And I was happy to hear you mention the Monroe Doctrine in your opening statement. For a long time, our doctrine has said we are going to control our hemisphere. We are going to be the arbiter of what happens or what does not happen in our region. And as we know, in the past 20 years, China, Russia and a lot of other people that do not have the best interests of America and our economy have started to take over not just economic interests, but, in fact, military interests in our region. We have Russian ships going to port in Venezuela and Cuba all the time too. So, we need to make sure we reinvigorate our presence throughout the hemisphere and throughout the world, and this is part of that movement. I support it.

On acquiring Greenland:

KUDLOW: Greenland is, I think, a key point for American interests. It’s a chokehold, if you will.
And here too, China and Russia nosing around Greenland, and I know that part of this is for strategic minerals and if so forth, rare Earth. But they’re also looking to set up naval operations, air force operations. They know what they’re doing. China now is calling itself an arctic power, which is bloody nonsense, if you ask me. Senator Sheehy, what do you make of that? The Greenland story, how do you see it?

SHEEHY: Well, again, this is another point of strategic interest for America. During World War II and the Korean War and all the way through the Cold War we had strategic locations all over the Pacific and all over the Atlantic to include Greenland and Iceland. And those locations were absolutely critical for our ability to control the Atlantic during World War II and throughout the Cold War.

Just like the Panama Canal, these are critical military strategic points of pressure that literally control the world. The world moves through the oceans, the vast majority of our trade. So, it’s not just military. It’s also economic. And as we’ve seen in the past few years, China has taken unprecedented actions to expand their sphere of maritime influence all over the world. And it’s not just in the South China Sea. As we know, it’s in Panama, and they’re going to continue to push that globally. So, we should be doing everything we can to revive our global footprint in places like Iceland and Greenland, and Panama, and across the Pacific. We’ve had them there before for most of the 20th century. And we foolishly have given them up in the past several of decades.

On control of the Panama Canal:

KUDLOW: Senator Sheehy, as Senator Tuberville is suggesting, here we are, President Trump is still President-elect Trump, although it has been certified, of course. But he is reestablishing, it seems to me, reestablishing America’s footprint on world affairs. He’s not invading, he’s not bombing, but he’s reestablishing America’s footprint. Most particularly, the part that I really like is how he’s reestablishing our footprint in Mexico and Latin America and throughout South America. These are things that are absolutely vital. These are America first interests, and they have been neglected these past four years, Senator Sheehy.

SHEEHY: You’re absolutely right. And it goes back further than four years. It goes back decades. Jimmy Carter, obviously, we’re about to see him laid in state here, but him giving back the Panama Canal in the ’70s was a huge mistake. And that kicked off the dominoes of this movement we’ve seen of this last 40 years where powers around the world have been giving back key interests that are core to their policies. And of course, the America first agenda centers around what’s best for the American people. It’s not too much for the American voter to ask their government to do what’s right for them, what’s right for American business, what’s right for the American border, what’s right for the American people. That should always come first. And what we’re seeing here before Trump’s even in office, he’s already enacting policies that are going to put the American people and their grocery prices, their gas prices, and their front door first. And that’s what it’s about time we do, is put the interest of our voters ahead of those of the rest of the world.

KUDLOW: Yes, Sir. Amen to all that.

Watch above via Fox Business Network.