cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23416568
Summary
Donald Trump criticized Panama Canal fees as “ridiculous” and demanded lower costs or the canal’s return to the US.
In a Truth Social post, Trump also expressed concern about potential Chinese influence over the waterway, despite no direct Chinese control of canal operations.
The canal, transferred to Panama in 1999, is vital for global trade, handling 5% of maritime traffic.
Trump’s comments follow record revenues of $5 billion announced by the Panama Canal Authority. Panama has not yet responded to his statements.
The reason it has gotten so expensive is that the lake they use to flood the locks is dangerously low. Thing is that lake is also their main source of drinking water. So there is limited capacity unless you deprive the Panamanian people of drinking water. It is a complex issue, and bluster and threats will not make it any better.
I bet at least part of the reason for the lake running low is climate change too, making Trump and his cronies partly responsible for the very expenses he’s having a hissy fit over…
But I thought he wanted to reduce imports from China.
Nah. Tariffs will just make consumers spend more money
Fun fact: according to the scientific consensus*, The Panama Canal is not located in China
*AKA maps. Geography is a science, after all…
What!? Does the NASA is know about this???
For a grown man in a diaper he sure demands a lot. The toddler act is only gonna get him so far
Ignore him, and he will go away. Not immediately, but soon. He thrives on your rage.
This just barely qualifies as not the Onion
Pay attention to me! Ignore Luigi and Elon. I’m the news! I will have order!
Hey Panama, it ain’t right that you’re charging people to use the Panama Canal. Give it to me so I can gouge the fuck out of it, including US shipping companies.
Unless they’re prepared to tickle my saggy balks of course, then they get friends and family discount.
In other words: he was playing golf with some shipping magnate who complained about the high fees.
Or there was a segment on Fox News.
Or Elon was trying to sound smart
There’s a theory around that Elon even wrote the post.
https://bsky.app/profile/philco.bsky.social/post/3ldu7wfsr6k2g
Nah, he’s just trying to give Russia and China justifications to take back Taiwan and Alaska
take-backsies as the basis for foreign policy
Panama has not yet responded to his statements.
Hopefully they just ignore him. And hopefully other countries start doing that too.
No government ahould be compelled to respond to Truth Social posts.
Yeah, best case scenario is that the rest of the world starts to consciously uncouple from the US, taking away the ability of the incoming fascist government to strongarm “allies” into doing and saying everything they want or suffer financial and diplomatic ruin.
It’s already happening. If Trump attempts to go Neville Chamberlain on Ukraine, the Europeans (at least a large group of them) are willing to tell him to fuck off.
Hopefully. Time will tell.
No civilized person should be compelled to listen to Trump’s whiny gob.
They could do something really funny and double it.
They probably can’t afford to double the fees for everyone, their canal would be out of business. But double the fees only for American-flagged vessels might be feasible.
It’s my understanding the canal is already almost out of business because they don’t have enough water. They limit travel through the canal to avoid emptying Lake Gatun.
You could argue they need to raise prices, both to account for the natural resource degradation and to reduce congestion to a sustainable level
As long as the fees as still lower than the cost to go around South America, I’m sure they’ll still have business.
Until global warming makes the northwest passage practical, anyway.
How much global temperature increase would we need for that route to be viable? Have there been any research on this?
You bet there’s been research on the northwest passage by every shipping and oil company with enough money to spend on research. A brand new shortcut around the world is the dream.
Sir, do you have the original receipt?
Probably not, since the US essentially stole it.
US wanted to build a canal. The place they wanted to build it was part of Colombia. US backs a secession of the Central American portion of Columbia, creating the nation of Panama. Panama grants the US a 99-year lease on the Canal Zone. US builds canal.
Unless Panama stole itself from Colombia when they won their independence I don’t think you can really call this stealing on the part of the US, either
Everybody laughing at this guy, but actual real people, and families, that are alive today, won’t be this time next year, because of the insane shit Trump and his cadre of incompetents will foist on the world with their purposefully unworkable foreign policies. You don’t do this, or nominate any of Trumps barrel bottoms in the first place, if you want a functioning ChristoFascist government, you do this because you want to get away with something else while everyone is distracted.
Panama should respond,
“In response to Trump’s statement, Panama will talk with Putin about the possibility of a Russian military base to be built in Panama to safeguard free trade from interference from President Trump.”
Trump can’t get angry at his daddy Putin.
I hate Putin but God please this happen because it would he so funny
Interesting, the fees can almost be directly compared to his tariffs, as in its a government mandated fee on top of goods/ships crossing the border/canal… and Trump does not like them 😅
Starmer should demand that Trump either drop the proposed tariffs or give New England back 😄
…as a lifelong New Englander, I’m not sure if I want to root for or against that proposal! (pre-Brexit it would have been a no-brainer; I’d love to be part of the EU)
Why should anybody care about what you, a resident of the place thinks? This is how trump operates also: not caring about the residents or the people impacted.
I vote we just give the 13 colonies to Canada. That should be fine.
Can we just give them Washington DC?
If we wait until after Jen 25th, does that mean trump is now president of Canada?
No, we’re taking that back too.
I think it’s time to start blocking news about US politics.
An empty feed, eh?
Would recommend it. Much better than having your brain rot away at a massively increased pace for the next four years.
Burying your head in the sand is technically a strategy
As is consuming news like these, getting frustrated over it but not being able to do anything about it and then wrecking your mental health.
Out of all the things I posted, that I thought you were replying to, I thought you were replying to my post that smith & wesson was about to benefit massively from the brain drain that the USA is about to experience over the next 4 years. With the implication of my joke being suicide. Then I read you reccomending it, and I full on belly laughed until I realized you were replying to a completely different comment. I thought you were going even more dark joke than I was…and I was STARTING the bar at suicide. I was like “GOD DAMN!!! This dude is even more depraved than I am! I love it!”
And for anyone out there getting worried…I mean…
…yeah, I don’t have a comfortable end to that sentence. This world is getting dark. The next 4 years are going to be bad. Real bad.
I hope it’s not going to be horrible for most people and since we already live through 4 years of it we probably will live through another four.
