In his speech to Congress on March 4, President Trump referred to a deal announced the same day for a consortium led by US investment management firm BlackRock Inc. to buy a controlling stake in a company owned by a Chinese conglomerate that operates ports at both ends of the Panama Canal, according to AP.

Chinese conglomerate CK Hutchison Holding said in a filing on March 4 that it will sell all of its stakes in Hutchison Port Holdings and Hutchison Port Group Holdings to BlackRock in a deal worth nearly $23 billion.

Panama maintains that it has full control of the Panama Canal and that the Chinese company operating the ports does not mean China controls the waterway, so the sale of shares to a U.S.-based company would not represent any U.S. “taking back” of the canal. The Panamanian government has called the deal a private transaction.

In addition, in a message posted on social network X on March 5, President Mulino denied that the above-mentioned share sale agreement came about due to pressure from the US. "I reject this new insult to the truth and our dignity as a nation, in the name of Panama and all Panamanians," Mr. Mulino wrote. He accused Mr. Trump of "lying again."

Mr Trump has talked about taking back the Panama Canal since the election campaign, arguing that the US should never have handed over control to Panama and that the US is being charged too much to use the canal.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with President Mulino last month and stressed that China is influencing the operation of the Panama Canal. Meanwhile, Panama denies that China has any influence on the operation of the canal.

The United States built the Panama Canal in the early 1900s as it sought to facilitate the movement of commercial and military ships between its coasts. Washington relinquished control of the waterway to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999, under a treaty signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Trump has said Carter was “foolish” to hand the canal over to Panama, according to the AP. Carter died on Dec. 29, 2024, at the age of 100.