A New York Democrat thinks he knows what's behind President-elect Donald Trump's bizarre new request: money.
Over the weekend, Trump suggested the United States should reclaim the Panama Canal, citing exorbitant fees for access and an increasing Chinese presence in the waterway.
"The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the US,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform late Saturday. "This complete ‘rip-off’ of our Country will immediately stop …”
Trump said he would not allow the canal to fall into the “wrong hands."
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“The United States has a vested interest in the secure, efficient, and reliable operation of the Panama Canal, and that was always understood. We would and will NEVER let it fall into the wrong hands! It was not given for the benefit of others, but merely as a token of cooperation with us and Panama."
The president-elect also appeared to be alarmed by increasing usage from China.
“When President Jimmy Carter foolishly gave it away, for One Dollar, during his term in Office, it was solely for Panama to manage, not China, or anyone else,” he said. “It was likewise not given for Panama to charge the United States, its Navy, and corporations, doing business within our Country, exorbitant prices and rates of passage.”
Panamanian President Mulino rebuffed Trump's statement on his X account.
“Every square metre of the Panama Canal and the surrounding area belongs to Panama and will continue belonging [to Panama],” Mulino said in a statement, prompting a curt reply from Trump: "We’ll see about that."
The saga became the topic of conversation on CNN on Monday night, with former Rep. Max Rose joking that people should always take Trump at his word.
"Look, you should take what Donald Trump says seriously," he said. "And to my friend [Republican strategist David Urban], obviously congrats on your victory and what I particularly enjoyed about Donald Trump's campaign was all of the Panama Canal commercials. And you saw how much that spiked in the exit polls. It was such a pivotal issue in the campaign! So obviously he'd be acting on it now!"
As his fellow panelists chuckled at Rose's dig, he noted Trump did not mention the Panama Canal during the campaign.
"The guy never mentioned it once! So we all know how this business works, ok? Someone wrote him a check. Or Someone had a pivotal meeting with him and made him a promise for a future check if he acted on this issue. So it's going to be Panama Canal this week or next and then in the weeks thereafter it'll be another pet project of the billionaire class. This speaks to the actual truth of this second iteration of what the second iteration of the Trump presidency will be: not the populist hard core issues that he actually ran on, and that's what's so sad about all this."
Watch the clip below or at this link.