The Gold standard couldn't be sustained. Basically, the U.S. was no longer just exporting shittons of product and making a killing, it was now also importing a lot. The shift of that balance meant that keeping the ratio of 35 dollars per troy ounce of gold was nigh impossible.

Hey mods! We got one! Ban him!

After the USAID thing I called it this morning: Before the end of march the U.S. is a dictatorship in all but name.
To pull this off things have to happen fast, denying anybody the time to react.

USAID was a probing attack, gauge the reactions, develop plans, figure out how to do it better with the next department. You don't start with Homeland Security, the CIA, or the FBI - that's the final part.

Meanwhile, keep everybody busy with 50 different crazy things so they can't organize a concerted effort to resist.
That being said, I'm only half-sold on Greenland and the Panama Canal being a distraction. Once you have complete control you're at the whim of Denmark not revoking access to Thule and Panama not denying passage. Might be both, confuse and prepare.

Don't tease old guy porn like that, he kept on all his clothes...