Panama Pres. Balks at Trump Threat to Take Back Panama Canal (Connecting the Dots: Jimmy Carter, The Carter Center, The Millennium Promise & Soros Funding, All Networking)
Newsmax.com
Monday,
23 December 2024 10:24 AM EST
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/panama-trump-panama-canal/2024/12/23/id/1192643/
President-elect
Donald Trump suggested Sunday that his new administration could try to regain
control of the Panama Canal that the U.S. "foolishly" ceded to its
Central American ally, contending that shippers are charged
"ridiculous" fees to pass through the vital transportation channel
linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Panama's
conservative president José Raúl Mulino, who was elected in May on a
pro-business platform, roundly rejected that notion as an affront to his
country's sovereignty.
Trump's
comment came during his first major rally since winning the White House on Nov.
5. He also basked in his return to power as a large audience of conservatives
cheered along. It was a display of party unity at odds with a just-concluded
budget fight on Capitol Hill, where some GOP lawmakers openly defied their
leader's demands.
Addressing
supporters at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest in Arizona, Trump pledged that
his "dream team Cabinet" would deliver a booming economy, seal U.S.
borders, and quickly settle wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
"I
can proudly proclaim that the Golden Age of America is upon us," Trump
said. "There's a spirit that we have now that we didn't have just a short
while ago."
His
appearance capped a four-day pep rally that drew more than 20,000 activists and
projected an image of Republican cohesion despite the past week's turbulence in
Washington with Trump pulling strings from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida as
Congress worked to avoid a government shutdown heading into the holidays.
House
Republicans spiked a bipartisan deal after Trump and Elon Musk, his billionaire
ally, expressed their opposition on social media. Budget hawks flouted Trump's
demand that they raise the nation's debt ceiling, which would have spared some
new rounds of the same fight after he takes office on Jan. 20, with Republicans
holding narrow control of the House and Senate. The final agreement did not
address the issue, and there was no shutdown.
Trump,
in his remarks in Phoenix, did not mention the congressional drama, though he
did reference Musk's growing power. To suggestions that "President Trump
has ceded the presidency to Elon," Trump made clear, "No, no. That's
not happening."
"He's
not gonna be president," Trump said.
The
president-elect opened the speech by saying that "we want to try to bring
everybody together. We're going to try. We're going to really give it a
shot." Then he suggested Democrats have "lost their confidence"
and are "befuddled" after the election but eventually will "come
over to our side because we want to have them."
Atop
a list of grievances — some old, some new — was the Panama Canal.
"We're
being ripped off at the Panama Canal," he said, adding that his country
"foolishly gave it away."
The
United States built the canal in the early 1900s as it looked for ways to
facilitate the transit of commercial and military vessels between its coasts.
Washington relinquished control of the waterway to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999,
under a treaty signed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter.
The
canal depends on reservoirs to operate its locks and was heavily affected by
2023 Central American droughts that forced it to substantially reduce the
number of daily slots for crossing ships. With fewer ships using the canal each
day, administrators also increased the fees that are charged all shippers for
reserving a slot.
With
weather returning to normal in the later months of this year, transit on the
canal has normalized. But price increases are still expected for next year.
Mulino
has been described as a conservative populist who aligns with Trump on many
issues. Panama is a strong U.S. ally, and the canal is crucial for its economy,
generating about one-fifth of that government's annual revenue.
Still,
Trump said, that, once his second term is underway, "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 of
America, in full, quickly and without question."
"I'm
not going to stand for it," Trump said. "So to the officials of
Panama, please be guided accordingly."
He
did not explain how that 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 addressed Trump's complaints over rising fees
for ships crossing the canal, saying they are set by experts who take into
account operational costs and supply and demand factors.
"The
tariffs are not set on a whim" Mulino said. He noted that Panama has
expanded the canal over the years to increase ship traffic "on its own
initiative" and added that shipping fee increases help pay for
improvements.
"Panamanians
may 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."
Trump
then took to his social media site in response, "We'll see about
that!" He also posted a picture of a U.S. flag planted in the canal zone
under the phrase, "Welcome to the United States Canal!"
The
canal aside, Trump's appearance at Turning Point's annual gathering affirmed
the growing influence the group and its founder, Charlie Kirk, have had in the
conservative movement. Kirk's group hired thousands of field organizers across
presidential battlegrounds, helping Trump make key gains among infrequent
voters and other groups of people that have trended more Democratic in recent decades,
including younger voters, Black men, and Latino men.
"You
had Turning Point's grassroots armies," Trump said. "It's not my
victory, it's your victory."
Trump
on Sunday also announced several new members of his incoming administration,
most notably:
·
Stephen
Miran, who worked at the Treasury Department in Trump's first term, to lead the
Council of Economic Advisers, an executive branch agency charged with providing
objective economic advice to the president.
·
Callista
Gingrich to be the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland. Gingrich was U.S. ambassador
to the Holy See in Trump's first term. She is married to former House Speaker
Newt Gingrich.
·
Separately,
Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt announced he was donating $1.1 million to
Trump's inaugural fund to complement the $14 million that he said he already
had given to the Make America Great Again Inc. super political action committee
— making him one of the president-elect's top donors. Pratt is chairman of
Pratt Industries, which uses recycled paper and boxes as a raw material in a
process that produces new cardboard.
Connecting
the Dots:
Open Society Foundations was a funder
for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).
George Soros is the founder & chairman
for the Open Society Foundations.
Marjorie M.
Scardino is a director at the Atlantic Council of the United
States (think tank) and a trustee at the Carter Center.
Jimmy Carter is
a co-founder & trustee for the Carter
Center, was the president for the Jimmy Carter administration and
an honorary co-chairman for the Millennium Promise.
Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for
the Millennium Promise.
George Soros was the chairman for
the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Resources:
Past Research
Fond
Remembrances for Jimmy Carter After Entering Hospice (Connecting the Dots:
Jimmy Carter, Carter Center, Phi Beta Kappa Society, U.S. Supreme Court,
Richard Nixon, Saudi Arabia, Muslims, The White House Project & Soros
Funding, All Networking) (Past Research on Jimmy
Carter)
Monday,
February 20, 2023
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