Panama President José Raúl Mulino has rejected Trump’s accusations that the key trade route is being operated by China and lodged complaints with the United Nations over Trump’s promises to retake the canal, which was handed over to the country in 1977.
Trump has said he would not rule out force to take control of the strategic waterway and complained of unfair pricing for transiting American ships, both commercial and the military.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters Thursday that Rubio’s travel to Panama will be the start of a broader trip through Central America and the Caribbean. This includes Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.
While Rubio’s trip is likely to focus on curbing illegal immigration to the U.S. from these countries, the trip to Panama is a sign of the Trump administration’s focus on expanding U.S. control beyond its borders.
“There is a reason why this is the first trip. It signals how serious he takes it, what it’s going to mean when it comes to his programs, and how it relates to his commitment to this nation, to address those issues that matter to him, and certainly the issues of the Trump agenda,” Bruce told reporters, Reuters reported.
“It’s about making sure that if we’re going to be safe and prosperous and in good shape, we … have to have an interest in our neighbors — and in today’s world, it’s certainly it’s South and Central America.”
Rubio, during his confirmation hearing last week, said there’s a “very legitimate issue” with the Panama Canal, echoing criticism from Trump over China’s influence, and said there could be a legal basis for arguing Panama had violated the terms of the 1977 treaty that established its control over the waterway.
“While, technically, sovereignty over the canal has not been turned over to a foreign power, in reality, a foreign power today possesses, through their companies — which we know are not independent — the ability to turn the canal into a choke point in a moment of conflict, and that is a direct threat to the national interest and security of the United States,” Rubio said.
China has invested heavily in Panama and manages two of five ports in the country.

But China and Molino have pushed back on Trump’s claims that any other country is in charge of the canal.
“The Canal has no control, direct or indirect, neither from China, nor from the European Community, nor from the United States or any other power. As a Panamanian, I strongly reject any manifestation that distorts this reality,” Molino said in a statement last month.
“China does not take part in managing or operating the Canal. Never ever has China interfered. We respect Panama’s sovereignty over the Canal and recognize it as a permanently neutral international waterway,” China’s Foreign Ministry wrote in a post on the social platform X.