Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Arizona, Trump also said he would not let the canal fall into the “wrong hands,” warning of potential Chinese influence on the passage.
“Has anyone ever heard of the Panama Canal?” Trump said at AmericaFest, an annual event organized by Turning Point, an allied conservative group.
Trump’s comments were an exceedingly rare example of a US leader saying he could push a sovereign country to hand over territory.
“It was given to Panama and the people of Panama, but it has provisions,” Trump said of the canal, which was once owned by the United States but was handed over to Panama decades ago.
US President-elect Donald Trump mimics a golf swing onstage while speaking during Turning Point’s annual AmericaFest 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo: Josh Edelson/ AFP)
In a recorded message released by Panama’s President Mulino on Sunday afternoon, the nation’s leader said that Panama’s independence was non-negotiable and that China had no influence on the canal’s administration.
China does not control or administer the canal, but a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings has long managed two ports located on the canal’s Caribbean and Pacific entrances.
But the United States and Panama signed a pair of accords in 1977 that paved the way for the canal’s return to full Panamanian control.
“Every square meter of the Panama Canal and the surrounding area belongs to Panama and will continue belonging (to Panama),” Mulino said in his statement, which was released on X.
The waterway, which allows up to 14,000 ships to cross per year, accounts for 2.5% of global seaborne trade and is critical to US imports of autos and commercial goods by container ships from Asia, and for US exports of commodities, including liquefied natural gas.
This is not the first time Trump has openly considered territorial expansion.
During his 2017-2021 term, Trump expressed interest in buying Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Trump repeated the idea on Sunday, in a statement announcing his pick for ambassador to Denmark, Ken Howery, a former ambassador to Sweden.
“For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” he wrote on Truth Social.
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