'Significant detail' missing from Pentagon readout of Trump defense secretary’s meeting
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on April 2, 2025 (U.S. Defense Department photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander Kubitz/Flickr)
On Tuesday, April 8, the Pentagon released a joint statement after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino during a visit to the Central American country. But according to Daily Beast reporter Isabel van Brugen, the U.S. version "appeared to omit a significant detail."
The joint statement was bilingual, with an English-language version released by the Pentagon and a Spanish-language version released by the Panamanian government.
The Spanish-language version reads: "Además, el Secretario Hegseth reconoció el liderazgo y la soberanía irrenunciable de Panamá sobre el Canal de Panamá y sus áreas adyacentes" — which translates to, "Besides, Secretary Hegseth recognized the leadership and inalienable sovereignty of Panama over the Panama Canal and its adjacent areas."
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But van Brugen notes, "That detail was nowhere to be seen in the English-language version released by the Pentagon, the Associated Press first reported."
According to van Brugen, "It's unclear whether…. Hegseth's apparent recognition of Panama's control over the historically contested waterway was intentionally omitted. Both versions note that the officials reaffirmed the historic security relationship between the Republic of Panama and the United States of America and that they agreed to continue strengthening bilateral security cooperation."
Relations between the U.S. and Panama took a turn for the worse after Trump narrowly won the United States' 2024 presidential election.
Greatly influenced by Patrick Buchanan's paleoconservative "America First" ideology, Trump was often described as an "isolationist" during his first presidency. But recently, Trump's rhetoric took a more imperialistic turn — with the U.S. president calling for Canada to become "the 51st state" and the U.S. to acquire Greenland (a territory of Denmark) and regain control of the Panama Canal.
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