Follow The Money

A Democratic congresswoman tried to make sense of Donald Trump's recent threats over the Panama Canal. https://t.co/yPQHqkh92z

— Raw Story (@RawStory) December 26, 2024

"The Belt and Road Initiative that China has engaged in is something that – you know, I have traveled the globe with my colleagues and met with military leaders," Wasserman Schultz said. "It is real, it is a real issue. But what we need to do is make sure that we strengthen our relationships with our with our allies and treaty partners like Panama, not make ridiculous carnival barker threats like buying Greenland, which isn't for sale and we're not going to acquire, and invading Panama to take back the canal. There's been a drought in Panama, and so it has been, it has slowed passage of ships. But what Donald Trump is really trying to do here is try to get better fees for passage for his corporate and billionaire allies. That's what this boils down to, and it's preposterous."

History lesson:

The negotiators decided that their best chance for ratification was to submit two treaties to the U.S. Senate. The first, called The Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal, or the Neutrality Treaty, stated that the United States could use its military to defend the Panama Canal against any threat to its neutrality, thus allowing perpetual U.S. usage of the Canal. The second, called The Panama Canal Treaty, stated that the Panama Canal Zone would cease to exist on October 1, 1979, and the Canal itself would be turned over to the Panamanians on December 31, 1999. These two treaties were signed on September 7, 1977.

So we can enforce the neutrality of the canal, to keep it open for all. What we can’t do is determine the fees for using it. Or control the weather.

And why is Trump doing this?

 "I mean, Greenland, Panama, Canada? No one saw any of this coming because this is what Donald Trump does –– he stirs chaos," he admitted. "It has strategic value for him because it distracts from other things he doesn't want to be talking about, but sometimes it just seems completely bizarre and made up." 

"None of this makes any sense," he confessed. "And I think what it signals is that we're back to the Donald Trump that we knew in his first term, which is he wakes up every day and just stirs chaotic, bizarre things and drives the news with that."

Distraction (currently, from reports on the influence of Elmo) and driving the news are pretty much all Trump knows. The chaos is just a consequence of his complete incompetence.

ADDING:

Happy Christmas Day. Trump announces that Kevin Cabrera will be the US Ambassador to Panama, a “country that is ripping us off on the Panama Canal, far beyond their wildest dreams”.

"Us” is not the United States. We the taxpayers don’t pay the fees for using the canal. Shippers do. “Us” is the billionaire mice in Trump’s pocket.