Trump's 'Crazy' Ideas Not So Crazy After All | ZeroHedge

Why is it that people are always calling for someone to think "outside the box," then when someone does, say, "Aaaak! He thought outside the box!" - Authored by Lawrence Kadish via The Gatestone Institute 

In that view, President-elect Donald J. Trump has already committed (at least) three heresies: Buy Greenland, stop China from controlling the Panama Canal and deepen America's affiliation with Canada.
All three ideas are neither crazy nor even new.

• President Harry S. Truman looked at acquiring Greenland in 1946.
• Thomas Jefferson, after the Louisiana Purchase, proposed buying Cuba – just think how the Cubans would be prospering now, politically and economically, if that deal had gone through. 
• Those acquisitions didn't take place but in 1917, the US did acquire Denmark's Virgin Islands for $25 million. As historian Stephen Press writes,

"As secretary of state, John Quincy Adams arranged debt relief for Spain in exchange for Florida. Secretary of State William Seward acquired Alaska. What Mr. Trump proposes is consistent with this American tradition—and with our current borders. Sovereignty purchases are responsible for more than 40% of U.S. land...

• As for the Panama Canal, President Jimmy Carter handed it to Panama for $1, but on the condition that it permanently remain a neutral zone – not one controlled at both ends by China.

"We gave the Panama Canal to Panama," Trump has pointed out. "We didn't give it to China. They've abused that gift."