Take Back Our Canal!
On December 21, 2024, Donald Trump became the first prominent American politician in more than two decades to even mention an important national-security issue: reclaiming the Panama Canal. In a Truth Social post, he noted that the canal “is considered a VITAL National Asset for the United States.” Lamenting how “President Jimmy Carter foolishly gave it away,” Trump asserted that Panama was treating the United States unfairly and favoring Communist China. He then declared that if this situation does not change, “then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question.”
Trump’s comments were not a one-off. In his inauguration address nearly one month later, the president vowed, “We’re taking [the Panama Canal] back.” And his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, made his first overseas trip to Panama to negotiate the canal’s status. Although Panama has announced it will end its participation in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an agreement on returning the canal has yet to be reached.
Trump’s comments mirror those of The John Birch Society, the parent organization of The New American and a leading force opposing the U.S. surrender of the Panama Canal. For example, the late Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and later joined the JBS, wrote in the August 2, 1999 issue of The New American:
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