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Hegseth Reports to Trump on Panama Canal Deals: First and Free for U.S. Vessels

April 10, 2025 · The White House · 0:01:04

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What happened

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reported to President Trump on returning from Panama the previous night, saying he had been at the Panama Canal with the SOUTHCOM commander, with ships, F-18s, and troops, and had signed a couple of historic deals.

The first, he said, is a framework with the Panama Canal Authority for U.S. vessels to go first and free through the Panama Canal. The second is a memorandum of understanding with Panama’s security minister for the presence of U.S. troops — at Fort Sherman, an old U.S. base, as well as a naval station and air station operated jointly with Panama — to secure the canal from Chinese influence.

Hegseth said this fulfills the President’s stated aim of taking back the canal: China has had too much influence and crept in under prior administrations, he said, and the United States together with Panama is pushing it out. He relayed that Panama’s President Mulino sends his regards, is very complimentary of the United States, and wants the communist Chinese out.

Why it matters

The report converts the President’s canal rhetoric into two signed instruments — transit priority for U.S. vessels and a renewed U.S. troop presence — framed explicitly as reversing Chinese influence in Panama.

Scoreboard watch

Hegseth described a signed framework for first-and-free U.S. vessel transit and a troop-presence MOU with Panama; both instruments are checkable against Defense Department and Panamanian government releases.

Sources: The White House, “Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on the Panama Canal: “We’re taking back the canal.””, 2025-04-10 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-04-10). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.