Most say Trump serious about Canada, Greenland, third term

Most Americans say they think President Trump is serious about the United States merging with Canada, taking over Greenland and running for a third term, according to a new survey released Tuesday. 

The Washington Post-ABC News Ipsos national poll found that 62 percent of Americans said the president is serious about serving a third term in the White House, despite it being at odds with the 22nd Amendment. 

Almost all Democrats and around six-in-10 independents think Trump is serious about another presidential run. Less than 40 percent of Republicans think the president is serious, the poll found. 

Trump said in an interview with The Atlantic, which was released on Monday, that a run for a third term "would be a big shattering."

"Well, maybe I'm just trying to shatter." the president told the magazine. “It's not something that I'm looking to do. And I think it would be a very hard thing to do."

The majority of Americans, 68 percent, said that Trump is serious about the U.S. taking control of Greenland, the world’s largest island and a semiautonomous territory of Denmark. Around 81 percent of Democrats and 65 percent of independents say the president is serious, compared to 58 percent of GOP respondents.

Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said recently that the island “will never, ever be a piece of property that can be bought by just anyone.”

Just over half of respondents, 53 percent, take Trump’s rhetoric around the U.S. taking control of Canada seriously. There are vast disparities between party lines. A large majority of Democrats, 75 percent, think that the president is serious about the U.S.’s potential takeover of Canada. But just 49 percent of independents and 35 percent of Republicans take Trump’s threat seriously. 

The survey was conducted from April 18-22 among 2,464 U.S. adults. The margin of error was two percentage points.