President Trump’s push to take back control of the strategic waterway stokes memories of a period of U.S. imperial ambition and violence.

More than 100 years after the construction of the engineering marvel that linked the Atlantic and Pacific oceans — and 25 years after the canal was returned to Panama by the US — the Panama Canal faces renewed intimidation from US President Donald Trump.

The neutrality of the nearly 50-mile canal, through which nearly 15,000 ships transit each year, is enshrined in Panama’s Constitution and is enforced by the autonomous Panama Canal Authority.

Trump has suggested using military force to retake the Panama Canal, but such an action would involve complications.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s insistence that he wants to have the Panama Canal back under U.S. control is feeding nationalist sentiment and worry in Panama, home to the critical trade route and a country familiar with U.

A fake quote attributed to Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, saying that his country would double the tariffs for U.S. warships transiting the Panama Canal and devote the proceeds to women’s reproductive health originated from a parody X account.

Panama’s government and President José Raúl Mulino have repeatedly denied that there is any Chinese presence at the canal.

Russia’s foreign ministry has called on Trump to reaffirm the current international agreement surrounding the Panama Canal and to leave it in control of the nation of Panama.

President Donald Trump’s insistence that he wants to have the Panama Canal back under U.S. control is feeding nationalist sentiment and worry in Panama, home to the critical trade route and a country familiar with U.

On Christmas Day, Trump posted on social media that the "wonderful soldiers of China" were "lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal" - a claim which was swiftly denied by officials in Panama City and Beijing.