Trump calls Panama Canal handover 'stupid mistake,' warns of Chinese takeover

Donald Trump stood at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota, on Wednesday and declared that one of America's most consequential foreign policy decisions of the twentieth century had been a blunder. The United States, he said, should never have transferred control of the Panama Canal to Panama under the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties, a handover that became complete in 1999. His complaint was not historical nostalgia but something more immediate: Panama, he alleged, had weaponized its newfound authority over one of the world's most critical shipping routes by raising transit fees dramatically and repeatedly—quadrupling them at one point without losing a single vessel to the competition. Each increase, he suggested, had simply funneled money into Panama's coffers year after year. "How stupid was that?" he asked.

But the fee structure, while clearly a source of frustration, was not the full measure of his concern. Trump layered onto his criticism a geopolitical alarm: China, he claimed, was actively attempting to seize control of the canal. He offered no detailed evidence of this alleged takeover bid, but the assertion carried weight in his telling because it reframed the entire debate. This was no longer about a bad deal struck decades ago. This was about a strategic asset slipping into the hands of a rival power while America stood by. "We're not going to let that happen," he said, his tone suggesting that letting it happen was not merely a possibility but a live threat requiring active prevention.

The canal itself remains one of the world's most economically vital passages. Roughly five percent of global maritime trade flows through its locks. When the United States controlled it, the waterway was a symbol of American power and engineering prowess. The decision to hand it over, negotiated under President Jimmy Carter and ratified under the 1977 treaties, had been contentious at the time and remains so in certain political circles. Trump's comments suggest that if his administration returns to power with sustained influence, the canal agreement could become a subject of renewed policy scrutiny.

Trump's remarks came during a broader address at the library opening in which he also took aim at the Supreme Court's handling of birthright citizenship, a constitutional right he believes has been extended too far. He argued that the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified just after the Civil War, was intended to protect the children of formerly enslaved people, not to grant automatic citizenship to the children of wealthy foreigners arriving on private jets. He expressed confidence that the court would eventually correct what he saw as an error in its interpretation, though he acknowledged that the justices had ruled against his preferred position.

He also celebrated a recent Supreme Court decision that had restored significant power to the presidency. On June 29, the court had voted 6 to 3 to overturn a 91-year-old precedent that had limited a president's ability to remove leaders of executive branch agencies without cause. Trump framed this as a restoration of authority that had been stripped away from Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 and had remained contested for nearly a century. The ruling, he said, gave the presidency the power it needed at a moment when such power was essential. He called it the most important of the recent decisions, more significant even than the birthright citizenship ruling that had disappointed him.

Together, these remarks painted a picture of a political figure convinced that American institutions and American interests had been weakened by past decisions and recent court rulings—and that correction was both necessary and within reach. The Panama Canal comment, in particular, signaled that infrastructure agreements long considered settled might be reopened for debate if Trump's political fortunes continue to rise.