Top Former Trump Official Explains Why Trump May Take Panama Canal Back

 Former Trump National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said during an interview over the weekend that President-elect Donald Trump was serious about taking back the Panama Canal from Panama because the country has effectively given up control of the canal to communist China.

O’Brien made the remarks during a Sunday interview on Fox News when asked about the matter after Trump seemingly brought it up out of nowhere.

“The Panama Canal is one of the engineering achievements of the last millennia, and we built it, we paid for it, and we operated it for many years, and then in a tremendous act of generosity, it was probably foolish, Jimmy Carter gave the canal back to the Panamanians,” O’Brien said. “But it wasn’t just a free gift, there are conditions that the canal remain neutral.”

“The Panamanians … gave the ports on both ends of the canal to the Chinese,” he said. “And even the New York Times is saying — which has been an apologist for China for years — is saying that the Chinese are committing espionage, or they could shut down the canal without military efforts just using these Hong Kong companies that control the canal.”

“And then on top of that, they’re raising the prices on American shipping,” he continued. “So 75% of the commerce that goes to the canal ends up at American ports or departs from American ports, and they’re ripping us off. And so the idea that they’ve given the canal to China, basically, in essence, and are charging us high prices. The Chinese are taking that news and that money to build their own military up. That doesn’t work for America anymore.”

He said that the U.S. was happy to let Panama run the canal but that there would need to be immediate changes made in order for that to happen, otherwise the U.S. would move to take it back.