Overview
- President Donald Trump delivered the warning at the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota, on Wednesday and vowed the United States would not allow China to take control of the Panama Canal.
- In the speech Trump said the United States should never have handed the canal to Panama and asserted that Panama sharply raised transit fees after assuming control in 1999, a claim reported as his statement rather than independently verified.
- Trump framed the China warning as part of a broader case for stronger U.S. leadership over strategic chokepoints and promised to prevent foreign control without announcing any concrete policy changes or presenting independent evidence of a Chinese takeover bid.
- He praised the June 29 Supreme Court decision that expanded presidential authority to remove executive-branch agency leaders and described the ruling as returning power to the presidency while also renewing criticism of the Court’s handling of birthright citizenship.
- The canal’s 1999 transfer under the Torrijos–Carter Treaties and its role as a global shipping chokepoint form the backdrop to Trump’s remarks and underline why U.S.-China competition for influence in Latin America now factors into U.S. strategic and political debate.