Donald Trump suggested Sunday that his new administration could try to regain control of the Panama Canal that the United States “foolishly” ceded to its Central American ally, arguing that shippers are being charged “ridiculous” fees to pass through the vital shipping channel. that unites the Atlantic. and Pacific Oceans.
Panama’s conservative president, José Raúl Mulino, elected in April on a pro-business platform, flatly rejected that idea as an affront to his country’s sovereignty.
The Republican president-elect’s comment came during his first major rally since winning the White House on Nov. 5. He also used his comments to bask in his return to power as a large audience of conservatives cheered him on. It was a show of party unity at odds with a just-concluded budget fight on Capitol Hill, where some Republican lawmakers openly defied their leader’s demands.
Addressing supporters at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Arizona, Trump promised that his “dream team cabinet” would deliver a booming economy, seal America’s borders and quickly resolve wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
“I can proudly proclaim that America’s Golden Age is here,” Trump said. “There’s a spirit we have now that we didn’t have a short time ago.”
His appearance capped a four-day pep rally that attracted more than 20,000 activists and projected an image of Republican cohesion despite last week’s turbulence in Washington, with Trump pulling the strings from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida while Congress worked to prevent a government. Closing for the Christmas holidays.
House Republicans reached a bipartisan agreement after Trump and Elon Musk, his billionaire ally, expressed their opposition on social media. Budget hawks ignored Trump’s request to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, which would have spared some new rounds of the same fight after he takes office on Jan. 20, 2025, with Republicans keeping a lid on narrow of the House and Senate. The final agreement did not address the issue and there was no closure.
Trump, in his remarks in Phoenix, did not mention the Congressional drama, although he did refer to Musk’s growing power. In response to suggestions that “President Trump has ceded the presidency to Elon,” Trump made it clear: “No, no. “That’s not happening.”
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“He will not be president,” Trump said.
The president-elect opened the speech by saying that “we want to try to unite everyone. Let’s try it. “We’re really going to try.” He then suggested that Democrats have “lost confidence” and are “bewildered” after the election, but that they will eventually “take our side because we want to have them.”
At the top of a list of complaints – some old, some new – was the Panama Canal.
“They are scamming us in the Panama Canal,” he said, lamenting that his country “foolishly gave it away.”
The United States built the Panama Canal in the early 20th century as it sought ways to facilitate the transit of commercial and military vessels between its coasts. Washington ceded control of the waterway to Panama on December 31, 1999, under a treaty signed in 1977 under President Jimmy Carter.
The canal depends on reservoirs to operate its locks and was greatly affected by the Central American droughts of 2023, which forced it to substantially reduce the number of daily slots for ship crossings. With fewer ships using the canal each day, administrators have also increased the fees charged to all carriers to reserve space.
As the weather returned to normal in the final months of this year, traffic through the canal has returned to normal. But price increases are still expected for next year.
Mulino, the president of Panama, has been described as a conservative populist who aligns with Trump on many issues. Panama is a strong ally of the United States and the canal is crucial to its economy, generating about a fifth of that government’s annual revenue.
Still, Trump said that, once his second term begins, “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 its entirety, quickly and without doubt.”
“I’m not going to allow it,” Trump said. “So to Panamanian officials, please be guided accordingly.”
He did not explain how that would be possible.
Shortly after Trump’s speech, Mulino released a video in which he declared that “every square meter of the canal belongs to Panama and will continue to belong” to his country.
Without mentioning Trump by name, Mulino addressed the president-elect’s complaints about rising rates for ships crossing the canal, saying they are set by experts who take into account operating costs and supply and demand factors.
“Tariffs are not set on a whim,” Mulino said. He noted that Panama has expanded the canal over the years to increase ship traffic “on its own initiative” and added that increases in shipping rates help pay for the improvements.
“Panamanians can have different points of view on many issues,” Mulino said. “But when it comes to our canal and our sovereignty, we will all unite under our Panamanian flag.”
Channel aside, Trump’s appearance at Turning Point’s annual meeting affirmed the growing influence the group and its founder, Charlie Kirk, have had on the conservative movement. Kirk’s organization hired thousands of field organizers on presidential battlegrounds, helping Trump make key gains among infrequent voters and other groups of people who have leaned more Democratic in recent decades, including voters younger, black men and Latino men.
“You had the grassroots armies of Turning Point,” Trump said. “It’s not my victory, it’s your victory.”
Earlier Sunday, Trump said Stephen Miran, who worked at the Treasury Department during Trump’s first term, was his choice to head the Council of Economic Advisers.
And Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt announced he would donate $1.1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund to complement the $14 million he said he had already donated to super political action committee Make America Great Again Inc., which makes him one of the president-elect’s top donors. .
Pratt is president of Pratt Industries, which uses recycled paper and boxes as raw materials in a process that produces new cardboard.
Weissert reported from West Palm Beach, Florida. Associated Press journalist Manuel Rueda in Bogotá, Colombia, contributed to this report.
