Donald Trump suggested Sunday that his new administration could try to regain control of the Panama Canal that the United States has “foolishly” caved in to its Central American ally, saying shippers must pay “ridiculous” fees to transit the vital shipping canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Panama’s conservative President José Raúl Mulino, elected in April on a pro-business platform, has flatly rejected the idea, calling it 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 November 5. He also used his comments to rejoice in his return to power to the applause of a large audience of conservatives. It was a show of party unity at odds with a just-concluded budget battle on Capitol Hill, where some Republican lawmakers openly defied their leader’s demands.
Speaking to supporters at AmericaFest at Turning Point USA in Arizona, Trump promised his “dream cabinet” would ensure 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 upon us,” Trump said. “We have a spirit today that we didn’t have a short time ago.”
His appearance capped a four-day pep rally that drew more than 20,000 activists and projected an image of Republican cohesion despite last week’s turmoil in Washington, with Trump pulling the strings from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida as Congress worked to avoid a Gov. stop as the Christmas holidays approach.
House Republicans reached a bipartisan deal after Trump and Elon Musk, his billionaire ally, voiced their opposition on social media. Budget hawks ignored Trump’s demand to raise the national debt ceiling, which would have avoided new rounds of the same fight after he takes office on January 20, 2025, with Republicans holding narrow control of the House and the Senate. The final agreement did not resolve the issue and there was no closure.
Trump, in his remarks in Phoenix, did not mention the congressional drama, although he did reference Musk’s growing power. To suggestions that “President Trump has ceded the presidency to Elon,” Trump responded clearly: “No, no. This doesn’t happen.
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“He’s not going to be president,” Trump said.
The president-elect opened the speech by stating that “we want to try to bring everyone together. We will try. We’re really going to try. He then suggested that Democrats had “lost their confidence” and were “confused” after the election, but would eventually “come to our side because we want them.”
At the top of a list of grievances – some old, some new – was the Panama Canal.
“We are being ripped off at the Panama Canal,” he said, lamenting that his country “foolishly gave it away.”
The United States built the Panama Canal in the early 1900s as it sought ways to facilitate the transit of commercial and military ships 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 relies on reservoirs to operate its locks and was hit hard by the Central American droughts of 2023 which forced it to significantly reduce the number of daily vessel crossing slots. With fewer ships passing through the canal each day, administrators also increased the fees charged to all shippers for reserving a slot.
With weather conditions returning to normal in the last months of this year, transit on the canal has normalized. 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.” United of America. , in its entirety, quickly and without doubt.
“I’m not going to stand for it,” Trump said. “So to those responsible in Panama, please be guided accordingly.”
He did not explain how this would be possible.
Shortly after Trump’s speech, Mulino released a video declaring that “every square meter of the canal belongs to Panama and will continue to belong” to his country.
Without mentioning Trump by name, Mulino responded to the president-elect’s complaints about rising fees for ships passing through the canal, saying they are set by experts who take into account operational costs and supply-side factors. request.
“Rates are not set on a whim,” Mulino said. He noted that Panama had expanded the canal over the years to increase shipping traffic “on its own initiative,” and added that increased shipping costs helped finance the improvements.
“Panamanians can have different views on many issues,” Mulino said. “But when it comes to our canal and our sovereignty, we will all unite under our Panamanian flag.”
The channel aside, Trump’s presence at the annual Turning Point gathering affirmed the growing influence of the group and its founder, Charlie Kirk, in the conservative movement. Kirk’s organization has hired thousands of field organizers in presidential battlegrounds, helping Trump make key gains among infrequent voters and other groups of people who have leaned more Democratic over the course of in recent decades, particularly young voters, black men and Latino men.
“You had the basic 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 lead the Council of Economic Advisers.
And Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt announced he would donate $1.1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund to supplement the $14 million he said he already gave to the Make America super political action committee Great Again Inc. – making him one of the president-elect’s top donors. .
Pratt is president of Pratt Industries, which uses recycled paper and boxes as raw material in a process to produce new cardboard.
Weissert reported from West Palm Beach, Florida. Associated Press writer Manuel Rueda in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.