In response to what he believes is Panama’s overcharging of the U.S. for its use, President-Elect Donald Trump announced his belief that America should take over control of the Panama Canal.
Trump made the statements during an event in Arizona on Sunday, vowing not to allow the Central American passageway connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans to fall into the “wrong hands,” alluding to those “wrong hands” belonging to China.
“Has anyone ever heard of the Panama Canal?” Trump said to a crowd of his supporters. “Because we’re being ripped off at the Panama Canal like we’re being ripped off everywhere else.”
Trump blasted the fees charged by Panama for America’s usage of the passageway.
“The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, highly unfair,” Trump said. "It was given to Panama and the people of Panama, but it has provisions. You get to treat us fairly, and they haven’t treated us fairly. If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, quickly and without question.”
U.S. involvement was crucial to the creation of the Panama Canal and controlled the surrounding territory at one time, but a pair of accords signed by America in 1977 allowed Panama a path to regain full control of the land, which they did in 1999.
About 14,000 ships cross the Panama Canal each year, representing about 2.5% of the world’s seaborne trade.
The Sunday statement was the second such claim made by the President-Elect this weekend after a Saturday night post on the social media platform Truth Social that criticized Panama. It currently remains unclear how Trump would seek to bring the canal back under U.S. control.