Trump said that he ‘cannot assure’ that military or economic coercion would not be used to take control of these two strategic locations.
President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he would not rule out the possibility of using military or economic coercion to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, emphasizing their strategic significance to U.S. national security.
Speaking at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump said that he “cannot assure” that military or economic coercion would not be used to take control of these two strategic locations, in response to a question.
“No, I can’t assure you on either of those two, but I can say this, we need them for economic security,” Trump responded.
“It might be that you’ll have to do something. Look, the Panama Canal is vital to our country. It’s being operated by China. We gave the Panama Canal to Panama. We didn’t give it to China, and they’ve abused it. They’ve abused that gift.”
Trump in recent social media posts expressed his frustration over China’s expanding influence in the canal, despite it having been built by the United States more than 110 years ago at great financial and human cost.
The Panama Canal, which opened in 1914 after a decade of construction led by the United States, was gradually handed back to Panama under a 1977 treaty signed by President Jimmy Carter.
During his speech, Trump criticized Carter for handing over the Panama Canal.
“Carter gave it to them for $1. … I thought it was a terrible thing to do. It was the most expensive structure ever built in the history of our country,” Trump said.
The president-elect said that this action cost Carter the election in 1980.
In 1999, Panama assumed full control of the canal, which has since become one of the busiest shipping routes in the world, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Construction of the canal, however, came at a high human cost. Official estimates suggest that around 5,600 workers died during the U.S.-led effort to build the canal. Additionally, nearly 22,000 people are estimated to have died during an earlier French-led construction attempt.
Trump reiterated that 38,000 people died during the waterway’s construction.
By Emel Akan
