The canal we gave away — Why the U.S. should reclaim Panama’s lifeline
The Panama Canal — eighty kilometers of locks and lakes carved through jungle and stone — stands as a monument to American audacity, a relic of an era when the U.S. didn’t just dream big but etched its ambitions into the earth. Since 1999, Panama has been in control, a handover solidified by the Torrijos-Carter Treaties — a noble gesture that now carries an air of strategic folly.
Donald Trump’s call to “take it back” stirs a potent mix of nostalgia and cold-eyed realism. He’s right to want it. The United States must control the Panama Canal — not out of imperial swagger, but because it’s a vital artery of our economic and military might, a choke point too critical to entrust to shaky hands.
Imagine a freighter stalled off Colón, its hold packed with Shenzhen-made gadgets, its captain seething as Panama’s rains — or drought — snarl traffic for days. Last year, a parched Gatun Lake reduced canal capacity by a third, forcing ships to reroute around Cape Horn or face extortionate premiums to skip the line. To the average American, it’s just a blip — your coffee maker costs a nickel more, your iPhone arrives a week late. However, zoom out: billions in trade grind to a halt, ports from Long Beach to Newark choke, and factories sweat their razor-thin schedules. That’s the canal’s silent clout. Leaving it to Panama — or, worse, under China’s influence — is a reckless gamble. Control isn’t bravado; it’s a shield.
The data supports this. Forty percent of U.S. container traffic passes through those locks — a lifeline for Asian goods flooding the East Coast, LNG heading west, and soybeans and steel powering the heartland. It reduces 8,000 nautical miles from the Cape Horn slog, turning weeks into days and millions into pennies. In 1914, when the first ship sailed through Gatun Locks, it crowned America as a maritime titan — $375 million and 5,600 lives were spent to create a shortcut that reshaped the globe. By 1999, relinquishing it signaled a softer America, trading leverage for a diplomatic pat on the back. Today, with China’s reach extending south, that leverage seems less like a luxury and more like a lifeline.
Trump’s pitch hinges on two main issues: fees and foreign influences. He criticizes Panama’s “exorbitant” tolls — $4 million for a gas carrier, a real figure but typical for the industry. The Panama Canal Authority defends its rates as fair, tied to drought and demand, yet Trump’s frustration taps into a deeper concern: America shouldn’t be nickel-and-dimed for what it built. Then, there’s China. “They’re operating it,” he claims — technically mistaken since Panama does — yet the threat is not imaginary. Chinese giants like CK Hutchison Holdings operate ports at both ends, with cranes looming over the locks; their infrastructure investments serve dual roles as geopolitical maneuvers. When Marco Rubio, Trump’s Secretary of State, confronted Panama City in February 2025, demanding a reduction of Chinese influence, he wasn’t bluffing. The canal is too vital to be treated as a bargaining chip.
Since 1999, Panama has handled 14,000 transits annually — a $5.2 billion upgrade — but the seams are splitting. Droughts are draining Gatun Lake, stalling traffic; fees are spiking, rankling shippers; and China’s shadow looms, unsettling Washington. The Panama Canal Authority insists it’s neutral, sovereign, and untouchable. However, neutrality is a fairy tale when superpowers collide. If China’s ports — or its navy — tighten their grip, the U.S. could wake up to a throttled backyard. Control isn’t about robbing Panama; it’s about ensuring the canal remains an American asset, not a rival’s lever.
When Trump vowed at Mar-a-Lago in December 2024 to “take back what’s ours,” he struck a chord of unease that has hummed since 1999 when the flag fell over Balboa Heights. The canal isn’t just a ditch — it’s a pivotal point of U.S. dominance, a bottleneck that tips the scales in a world of trade wars and warships. His fee fixation may lack precision, but it resonates with a raw truth: America pays dearly for what it once ruled outright. Why pay tolls when you could hold the deed?