Trump threatens to attempt to regain management of Panama Canal | EUROtoday

President-elect Donald Trump has demanded Panama scale back charges on the Panama Canal or return it to US management, accusing the central American nation of charging “exorbitant prices” to American delivery and naval vessels.

“The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, highly unfair,” he informed a crowd of supporters in Arizona on Sunday.

“This complete rip-off of our country will immediately stop,” he mentioned, referring to when he takes workplace subsequent month.

His remarks prompted a fast rebuke from Panama’s president, who mentioned “every square metre” of the canal and surrounding space belong to his nation.

President José Raúl Mulino added that Panama’s sovereignty and independence had been non-negotiable.

Trump made the feedback to supporters of Turning Point USA, a conservative activist group that supplied important help to his 2024 election marketing campaign.

It was a uncommon instance of a US chief saying he might push a rustic handy over territory – though he didn’t clarify how he would achieve this – and an indication of how American international coverage and diplomacy might shift as soon as he enters the White House following his inauguration on 20 January.

Trump’s feedback adopted the same put up a day earlier through which he mentioned the Panama Canal was a “vital national asset” for the US.

If delivery charges will not be lowered, Trump mentioned on Sunday, “we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, quickly and without question”.

The 51-mile (82km) Panama Canal cuts throughout the central American nation and is the primary hyperlink between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

It was constructed within the early 1900s and the US maintained management over the canal zone till 1977, when treaties step by step ceded the land again to Panama. After a interval of joint management, Panama took sole management in 1999.

Up to 14,000 ships cross the canal per yr, together with container ships carrying automobiles, pure gasoline and different items, and navy vessels.

As effectively as Panama, the president-elect additionally took purpose at Canada and Mexico over what he known as unfair commerce practices. He accused them of permitting medication and immigrants into the US, though he known as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum a “wonderful woman”.

Trump made his remarks in entrance of hundreds at Turning Point’s annual convention, one of many nation’s largest gatherings of conservative activists.

Turning Point poured large assets into get-out-the-vote efforts in swing states designed to bolster Trump and different Republicans throughout the election marketing campaign.

It was his first speech since a deal handed Congress this week to maintain the US authorities open, after a number of provisions had been eliminated together with one that will have elevated the nation’s debt ceiling.

Trump had supported elevating the debt ceiling, which restricts the sum of money the US authorities can borrow.

But his speech on Sunday averted that subject totally, as an alternative recapping his election victory and hitting on themes – together with immigration, crime and international commerce – that had been mainstays of his marketing campaign.

He did, nonetheless, point out Elon Musk.

“You know, they’re on a new kick,” he mentioned. “All the different hoaxes. The new one is that President Trump has ceded the presidency to Elon Musk.”

“No, no, that’s not happening,” he mentioned. “He’s not gonna be president.”

Several audio system right here on the convention had been important of presidency spending and of politicians in each events – nonetheless the divisions contained in the Republican Party which have performed out in Congress in latest days had been principally muted.