Trump fighting for....shipping companies? Demands Panama Canal back (bonus Greenland)

Trump is the president of the USA yet is spending his time spewing disinformation and threatening to invade sovereign countries. This isnt some random shitposter on twitter but rather the most powerful human in the world.

I dont know how yall arent embarrassed to have him as POTUS. Hes a utter moron of a human being

 

Fun Fact: The US Navy has multiple carrier groups on (checks notes) BOTH sides of the continent

 

It reminds me of this old story.

Narco-a-lago: Money Laundering at the Trump Ocean Club Panama
Scroll down to read the investigation

https://www.globalwitness.org/en/ca...ring/narco-a-lago-panama/#chapter-0/section-0

 

and the Grift Continues

Rocket River

 

It's VERY expensive for a container ship to travel through the Panama Canal. Around $500,000. The US is responsible for something like 70% of traffic through the canal. The cost to pass through the canal is passed along to the American consumer... which effectively makes it an onerous tax... hitting the lower classes the hardest. So this move to take back the canal, and lower costs, helps Americans. Single black mothers struggling to pay the bills should be in full support of Trump's move here.

GOOD DAY

 

Climate change and drought is forcing 8.5 billion in upgrades and renovations. In response, the government raised fees and made big investment deals with China.

Not sure what Trump can do other than b**** about it

 

gift link will work for everyone

Panama Launches Charm Offensive in First Bilateral Meeting With Trump Administration
Central American nation offers closer cooperation on migration and security while seeking to ease U.S. fears about Chinese influence over the Panama Canal

https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/...0?st=tc1xw1&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

 

If this bluster is to reduce China's increasing property ownership, and reducing the fees American ships pay to navigate the canal, I'm all for it.

Trump needs a discount on goods going thru the canal to offset his tariffs.

I will be keeping an eye on this one.

 

As dumb as Trump's bluster about Panama sounds, I think his focus on it is justified. China's Belt & Road Initiative looks like a very credible play at global hegemony by drawing much of the former third world into China's economic sphere. Which might work out fine for, say, African countries who weren't getting a lot of investment from the US and Europe anyway. But having countries in Central and South America joining China's economic sphere is obviously threatening to US' regional hegemony, nevermind global hegemony. And, because of the strategic importance of the Panama Canal, Panama is an obvious first target for the US to try to push China back out. As Trump always does with his negotiations, he starts with threats of taking something away from the counterparty. In this case, it's their physical control of the canal.

And this is recent stuff. Panama dropped recognition of Taiwan in 2017 to get into the BRI with China. I'm not sure if the primary motivation was all the investment that China was promising them or maybe it was the bribery. But, I expect whatever deal we do with Panama can't just be stick -- we will probably be promising more investment to supplant what China was offering them. If we're going to counter BRI more generally, I think we're going to need to promise more international investment or else lock out from western markets countries that won't play ball.

Greenland is a similar story except we're playing ahead there instead of trying to catch up. Denmark is unlikely to do a deal with China, but the attraction of a BRI deal might strengthen the drive for Greenland independence and then an independent Greenland can do a deal with China. If instead they get a deal with the US, they can get investment without changing their governance. Of course, they'll need to watch out for Trump, who is likely to be as neocolonialist as China's BRI.