02:51
Donald Trump becomes the 47th President of the United States
Donald Trump becomes the 47th President of the United States
Donald Trump vowed on Monday in his inaugural address after taking the oath of office as the 47th president that his administration would “take back” the Panama Canal.
President Trump said the United States was being treated “extremely badly” by Panama and that American ships were “grossly overcharged.”
He added, “And above all, China runs the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we’ll take it back. ”
The remarks stood out as the most concrete manifestation of his expansionist ideas heading into the inauguration, and echoed one of the themes Trump reiterated throughout his 30-minute speech: It was consistent with “the fulfillment of manifest destiny.” ” and American exceptionalism.
This idea is implicitly conveyed by the call to expand American power by recapturing the Panama Canal, and more explicitly by the call to “carry our flag to new and beautiful horizons, and we will rise to the stars.” “Pursue the Manifest Destiny of Launching American Astronauts to Plant the Stars.” Stars and Stripes of Mars. ”
But he did not mention TikTok during his 30-minute speech, speaking generally about the need for tariffs.
Details of our report
Reporting by Robert Delaney, Mark Magnier, Khushboo Razdan, Laura Zhou, Igor Patrick, Bochen Han, Kawala Xie, Ralph Jennings, and Finbarr Bermingham. All times listed in blog entries are in Eastern Time (UTC-5, HKT-13).
