The outgoing and incoming U.S. presidents had different messages for the Christmas holiday on Wednesday, with Democrat Joe Biden urging Americans to reflect and unite, while Republican Donald Trump offered a holiday greeting and then took aim at his political opponents.

President-elect Trump and President Biden bid Americans a merry Christmas as the nation nears a change in presidential administrations.

Trump named Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera as his choice for the post after suggesting that the US should take control of the Panama Canal – a proposal he first floated over the weekend while claiming that Panama is “ripping off” American ships that pass through the waterway.

President-elect Donald Trump ran on a platform of isolating the US from foreign conflicts like the Ukraine war, increasing tariffs on foreign trade partners, and rebuilding domestic manufacturing. But in recent days he has suggested a more outwardly aggressive approach for his foreign policy.

President-elect Trump has revived calls for the United States to buy Greenland and complains of high fees at the Panama Canal. Some experts say his words hark back to an aggressive style he used in business.

The defence minister did not give an exact figure for the package, but Danish media estimated it would be around 12-15bn krone. The announcement came a day after Trump said on his

Denmark is bolstering defense spending in Greenland, said a Danish official Tuesday who called the announcement's timing with President-elect Trump's suggestion that the U.S. should own the territory an "irony of fate.

President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of 37 people on death row, which means those individuals will have their sentences changed from execution to life without parole, the White House said in a press release on Monday.

President Biden on Monday commuted the sentences of nearly all prisoners on federal death row, sparing the lives of 37 men just a month before Donald J. Trump will return to the Oval Office with a promise to restart federal executions.