By Robert McGreevy, Daily Caller News Foundation | December 22, 2024
President-elect Trump warned Panama that the U.S. would demand the canal be returned to America if Panama did not stop charging exorbitant fees to use it in a Saturday night Truth Social post.
“The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the U.S. This complete “rip-off” of our Country will immediately stop,” he wrote, also calling the canal a “VITAL national asset.”
“We would and will NEVER let it fall into the wrong hands! It was not given for the benefit of others, but merely as a token of cooperation with us and Panama. 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, and without question,” Trump continued.
Trump blasted former President Jimmy Carter for giving away the canal, calling it a foolish decision.
Carter signed a treaty with then-Panamian military junta leader Omar Torrijos in 1977, kicking off a transfer process that culminated in full transferal to the Panama Canal Authority in 1999, according to History.com.
Before Carter’s treaty, however, the U.S. signed the 1903 Hay-Bunau-Varilla treaty. The treaty granted the United States “the use, occupation, and control” of the canal’s land for “construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation, and protection,” according to Duke University Press.
The U.S. in fact backed a Panamian sovereign revolution against the territory’s then-owners, Colombia, after Colombia rejected an American attempt to overtake France’s failed attempt at building the canal, according to History.com.
The infrastructure project was America’s most expensive in history at the time, and is still a key facet of American trade. As Trump pointed out in his post, 70 percent of all transits through the canal are either to or from U.S. ports.
Trump also alluded to growing Chinese influence in Latin America as a potential threat to the port.
“It was solely for Panama to manage, not China, or anyone else,” he wrote. “We would and will NEVER let it fall into the wrong hands!”
Robert McGreevy is a reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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