A Democratic congresswoman tried to make sense of Donald Trump's recent threats over the Panama Canal.
The president-elect has threatened to have the U.S. retake control of the canal, claiming that Panama charges too much for using the waterway and warning that China has too much influence over the region, but Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) told CNN that Trump's comments were nonsense.
"It is utterly preposterous to suggest that we are going to send our military in to Panama to, quote, 'take back the Panama Canal,'" Wasserman Schultz said. "As I said, we have a treaty with Panama, we have a free trade agreement with Panama, and we are no more going to take back the Panama Canal than Panama is going to come in and try to take the Mississippi River from us. We have to have rational, balanced diplomacy."
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The congresswoman agreed that China had a foreign policy interest in Latin America, but she said Trump's threats to reassert control over the canal was just another favor to his billionaire donors.
"The Belt and Road Initiative that China has engaged in is something that – you know, I have traveled the globe with my colleagues and met with military leaders," Wasserman Schultz said. "It is real, it is a real issue. But what we need to do is make sure that we strengthen our relationships with our with our allies and treaty partners like Panama, not make ridiculous carnival barker threats like buying Greenland, which isn't for sale and we're not going to acquire, and invading Panama to take back the canal. There's been a drought in Panama, and so it has been, it has slowed passage of ships. But what Donald Trump is really trying to do here is try to get better fees for passage for his corporate and billionaire allies. That's what this boils down to, and it's preposterous."