Trump threatens to take control of Panama Canal, staple of global economy
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to take control of the Panama Canal, accusing the Panamanian government of charging excessive shipping tolls to use the strategic waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. “We’re being ripped off at the Panama Canal like we’re being ripped off everywhere else," Trump said at a conservative conference in Phoenix on Sunday, demanding the return of the state-run canal to the U.S.
“We will never, never let it fall into the wrong hands." His comments drew an angry rebuke from Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, who took office in July after campaigning on a platform to curb U.S.-bound migration through the country’s pristine tropical rainforests with support from the U.S. government. He rejected Trump’s threats as an affront to Panama’s sovereignty.
“Every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent area belongs to Panama and will continue to be so," Mulino responded in a televised address Sunday afternoon. “The sovereignty and independence of our country aren’t negotiable." “We’ll see about that!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform later in the day. He added in another social-media post featuring an image of a waterway and an American flag, “Welcome to the United States Canal!" Trump didn’t specify how he would take back control of the canal.
His transition team didn’t respond to a request for additional comment. Short of an invasion, as the U.S. carried out in 1989 to overthrow then-dictator Manuel Noriega, the U.S.
government has no ability to restore control of the canal, which the U.S. built more than a century ago. The U.S.
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