Opinion - In Panama, we’re a laughing stock because of Trump
“Our Country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the World!”
That’s what Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social Jan. 2, after the deadly assaults in New Orleans and Las Vegas. Happy New Year, America — you’re a joke.
Trump is right, but not for the reasons he imagines. When people around the world mock us, it’s not because of our “open borders” or “violent erosion of safety,” as Trump wrote. It’s because of Donald J. Trump. He is the joke.
I just got back from Panama, where lots of people make fun of Donald Trump. He recently threatened to take back the Panama Canal, which he said was over-charging American ships. He also said it was ruled by China.
Panamanians know better. There is no evidence — none — that Americans pay more than other users of the canal. And while a Hong Kong-based firm does administer ports on either side of the canal, no one believes that China controls it.
Whenever I mentioned Trump, people laughed. “He’s crazy,” one of my guides declared, twirling a finger around his ear in the universal symbol of mental instability. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” an Uber driver said, smiling broadly.
But threats of U.S. force are no joke in Panama, where the history of American military intervention looms large. So while everyone I met thought Trump was a buffoon, they also took his warning seriously. When a clown raises his fist, you never know what to expect.
Maybe that’s Trump’s endgame, another guide suggested. If enough people believe he’s unstable, Trump thinks, Panama will give him what he wants.
Think again. Panama owes its independence to America, but it has also fought to protect itself from America. It’s not about to give up now.
At the start of the 20th century, Panama was a province of Colombia. When Colombia rejected America’s proposal to construct a canal, the United States supported the secession of Panama and protected it from Colombian attack.
That cleared the way for “The Path Between the Seas,” a monumental project that solidified America’s status as a global power. But it also stoked tensions inside Panama, especially within the U.S.-controlled Canal Zone.
I was in Panama on Jan. 9, “Martyr’s Day,” which commemorates a 1964 riot that started when students planted a Panamanian flag outside of a U.S.-operated school. Twenty people — including three Americans — died, and hundreds were injured.
Panamanians haven’t forgotten. “Today is a day to remember our martyrs,” said an 84-year-old retiree, who was a student during the riots, “but also to say to the world that Panama is sovereign and the canal is ours.”
In 1977, Jimmy Carter signed an agreement pledging to relinquish control of the canal to Panama. I saw several statues in honor of Carter, whose recent death was widely mourned in the country.
But Trump’s threats also conjured America’s 1989 invasion of Panama to depose President Manuel Noriega, a former U.S. ally who became an international drug kingpin. The attack led to the deaths of at least 500 people.
Nobody has forgotten that, either. “It is an open wound,” a member of Panama’s national assembly said earlier this month.
And that has only strengthened Panama’s resolve to resist any incursions by Trump. “He is a very arrogant man who thinks he can take whatever he wants,” said Isabel Corro, president of a group of Panamanians who lost family members in the 1989 invasion. “It should not happen and we will not let it happen.”
I hope she’s right. Taking back the canal would violate America’s treaty with Panama and a host of international laws. And it would further destabilize the world, encouraging other strongmen to take whatever they can.
It would make it harder for the U.S. to argue that Russia President Vladimir Putin should stay out of Ukraine, or that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no business building more settlements in the West Bank. This isn’t just about Trump and Panama. It’s about all of us.
“He cannot just say, ‘I’m going to buy this country, I’m going to invade this one,’” said Isabel Corro, whose stepfather was killed in the 1989 invasion. “The world is not some big flea market.”
That’s exactly right. If Donald Trump continues to threaten the invasion of Panama — or the purchase of Greenland — he’ll make us a laughing stock all over the world. And that’s no joke.
Jonathan Zimmerman teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania. He serves on the advisory board of the Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest.
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