Panama's President And Trump Spar Over Panama Canal

Moments after President-elect Donald Trump doubled down on his plans to take back the Panama Canal, Panama’s president said Sunday that the canal will remain under his country’s control.

In a video posted to social media, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, who was elected earlier this year on a pledge to bring his country closer to the United States, rejected Trump’s claims that the United States could retake the strategically important waterway. He also disputed Trump’s complaints that U.S. vessels were being charged unfair and exorbitant fees to travel through the canal.

“As president, I want to clearly state that every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjoining zone is Panama's and will remain so," Mulino said Sunday. "The sovereignty and independence of our country is non-negotiable.” Mulino went on to say that the canal is an integral part of his country’s history and that every Panamanian “carries it in their heart.”

Trump reiterated his intentions to take back the Panama Canal, after threatening he would in a Truth Social post on Saturday. Trump said that the United States is being “ripped off” at the Panama Canal and has insinuated that China is gaining influence over the waterway. “We're being ripped off at the Panama Canal like we're being ripped off everywhere else,” Trump said Sunday.

“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 the United States of America in full, quickly and without question,” Trump said at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix, his first big public appearance with supporters since the election. “We’re not going to stand for it. So to the officials of Panama, please be guided accordingly.”

It is unclear why Trump has focused on the vital shipping passage in recent days. Panama has been a steady ally since the U.S. ouster of dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989. While China had courted previous Panamanian governments with infrastructure projects, and a Hong Kong-based company operates two of the ports on the ends of the canal, the canal is administered by an independent government agency, the Panama Canal Authority.

Mulino’s government, meanwhile, has pledged to deepen ties with the United States, and China has not announced additional investments or overtures regarding the crucial shipping way in recent months.

The U.S. helped Panama gain independence from Colombia at the turn of the 20th century so that it could build a long-desired waterway through the isthmus that would connect the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and greatly speed up maritime shipping. For decades, the U.S. administered the canal and an area of territory around it known as the Panama Canal Zone. Future U.S. Sen. John McCain was born there in 1936.

But after tensions emerged over the canal zone, the Carter administration, eager to throw cold water on Soviet accusations of U.S. imperialism, signed two treaties with the country’s then-military dictator, Omar Torrijos, in 1977 that would hand Panama the canal by 1999 while preserving the rights of the United States to intervene militarily to defend the canal’s neutrality. Analysts, however, do not believe any provision of the Torrijos-Carter treaties would enable the United States to legally retake the canal.

Trump described how the United States “built” and “uses” the canal and that it was given to Panama as a “token of cooperation,” but that Panama has not treated the United States fairly since then. He added that the United States has always had a "big invested interest in the secure, efficient and reliable operation of the Panama Canal" and that was "always understood" when the canal was handed to Panama.

“Our Navy and commerce have been treated in a very unfair and injudicious way. The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, highly unfair, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama,” Trump said. “This complete ripoff of our country will immediately stop. It's going to stop.”