Trump Says US Won't Let China Take Panama Canal
Trump claimed that Panama sharply increased transit fees after taking over and warning that China is trying to gain influence over the strategic waterway.
US President Donald Trump said the United States should never have handed over control of the Panama Canal, claiming Panama sharply increased transit fees after taking over and warning that China is trying to gain influence over the strategic waterway.
Speaking at the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota, on Wednesday (local time), Trump criticised the decision to transfer control of the canal under the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties, which resulted in Panama assuming full control in 1999.
"The Panama Canal, so we gave it away. The first thing they did, you know what they did? They raised the prices for the ships by four times, and they didn't lose one ship. And then they raised it again twice, and they didn't lose one ship. All they did was make tremendous amounts of money for years and years. How stupid was that?" Trump said.
"And now China's trying to take over the Panama Canal, and we're not going to let that happen, okay?" he added.
Trump also renewed his criticism of the Supreme Court's handling of birthright citizenship, arguing that the constitutional provision was originally intended to protect the children of formerly enslaved people after the Civil War, not the children of wealthy foreign nationals.
"We'll take care of the birthright citizenship because that was not meant for rich people from other countries. It was meant for the babies of slaves," Trump said, adding that he believed the court had "got it wrong."
The US president also praised a recent Supreme Court ruling that expanded presidential authority to remove leaders of executive branch agencies, describing it as a major victory for the presidency.
"You know, a little while ago, not in yesterday's decisions where we actually had a good day except for birthright citizenship, we had something that gives back tremendous power to the President of the United States, and we won that, I think, 6 to 3," Trump said.
"It gives power back to the president at a time when the president really needs power. It was the most important decision of all of them, I think," he added.
