EXPERT INTERVIEWS — The Panama Canal has landed squarely in the national security conversation, thanks to a series of remarks by Donald Trump, who as President-elect and in his inaugural address Monday has cast the status of the canal as an issue that requires urgent attention.
“We have been treated very badly from this foolish gift that should have never been made,” Trump said at the inaugural Monday, referring to the 1977 Panama Canal Treaty which resulted in the U.S. ceding ownership of the canal to Panama. “Panama’s promise to us has been broken,” Trump added, buttoning the point with a pledge to restore U.S. sovereignty over the waterway: “We’re taking it back.”
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