Trump Gives New Orders to U.S. Military on Panama Canal Takeover

The Trump administration has asked the U.S. military to draw up options for retaking the Panama Canal. 

President Trump has been pushing for retaking the canal since December, and repeated his desire in a joint address to Congress last week, without any elaboration. The rest of the Trump administration hasn’t attempted to explain what he means, either. 

The military is drawing up options, according to NBC News, that range from a closer partnership with the Panamanian military to soldiers seizing the Panama Canal by force, according to unnamed officials. The use of force depends on how much Panama’s military is willing to work with the United States, the officials told NBC News. 

The commander of U.S. Southern Command, Admiral Alvin Holsey, presented the different strategies to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth earlier this week. The plan to use military force against Panama will only be considered if posting additional U.S. military personnel does not accomplish Trump’s goal of “reclaiming” the canal, the officials said.  

Right now, the U.S. has more than 200 troops in the country, including Special Forces units working with Panamanian units to combat internal unrest. Trump claims China has troops in the canal, which Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino denies, as does China. In February, Panama decided not to renew an infrastructure agreement with China, drawing criticism from the country toward the U.S. 

China “firmly opposes the U.S. smearing and undermining the Belt and Road cooperation through means of pressure and coercion,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian, referring to the country’s Belt and Road development initiative. 

Later this month, Hegseth is expected to visit Panama, where discussions on increasing U.S. troop presence in the canal zone will take place. The Cabinet secretary is fully on board with Trump’s desire to retake the canal, saying in January that the U.S. has “the right—we retain the right—to do what is necessary to make sure there is free navigation in the Panama Canal.”

The canal is one of the busiest waterways in the world, with most of the cargo passing through heading to or from the U.S. Any disruption or blocking of the canal would have devastating effects on the U.S. as well as the world economy. But Trump has proven during his presidency that his personal wishes outweigh any economic concerns, no matter how absurd.

A federal judge ruled Thursday that the mass firing of federal employees was an “unlawful” directive by the Office of Personnel Management.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered several agencies to “immediately” reinstate all fired probationary employees. Those agencies included the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as the Departments of Defense, Energy, Interior, Treasury, and Agriculture. That would also restore numbers at the Internal Revenue Service, which falls under the helm of the Treasury Department and has been hit hard by job cuts in recent weeks.

In a hearing leading up to the decision, Alsup torched the Trump administration’s decision not to submit OPM director Chad Ezell for questioning as a “sham,” and accused the White House’s effort to cast the firings as performance failures as “a gimmick.”

“It is sad, a sad day, when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” Alsup said, according to Politico’s Kyle Cheney.

The Trump administration has fired at least 30,000 employees with the help of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has made a point to target probationary employees still within the first year of their roles. Some of those employees have been called to return, but most are still not working, reported Axios.

Alsup’s order comes as federal agencies are due to submit “reduction memos” to the White House that could affect as many as 250,000 additional federal employees who fit that criteria.

Alsup further accused the administration of hiding the facts of who directed the layoffs.

“You will not bring the people in here to be cross-examined. You’re afraid to do so because you know cross-examination would reveal the truth,” the California judge told a DOJ attorney, according to Politico. “I tend to doubt that you’re telling me the truth.… I’m tired of seeing you stonewall on trying to get at the truth.”

This story has been updated.

Elon Musk has promised that his efforts to slash the government would be “maximally transparent”—but instead, the billionaire’s Department of Government Efficiency has only worked to obscure the facts of its operation to slash the federal government.

DOGE’s first batch of published savings was riddled with errors, with experts pointing out that the math wasn’t adding up in its accounting. By Wednesday, the group reported—without receipts—that it had saved the government $115 billion through a “combination of asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions.”

Fact-checking DOGE’s details, however, revealed that the organization has confused billions with millions, tripled the savings from nixing one contract, claimed credit for canceling programs that ended under the Bush administration, and said it spared $1.9 billion for ending an IRS contract that was actually axed under President Joe Biden. The group later deleted these details from its “savings” page.

But rather than push to improve accuracy in its reporting, DOGE decided to go the opposite route and make its new claims even harder to check.

On March 2, Musk’s group posted a note that it had saved taxpayers another $10 billion by terminating thousands of federal grants. But instead of pointing to specifics for the savings—as it had done before—DOGE opted not to include identifying details related to the slashed grants, The New York Times reported Thursday. The White House claimed the new policy was instituted for security reasons.

Regardless, the Times was able to identify the relevant receipts by examining DOGE’s publicly available source code, which momentarily retained the federal identification numbers of the grants, and discovered that DOGE’s latest batch of savings was just as dishonest and illegitimate as previous rounds. DOGE deleted the ID numbers from their source code shortly after the grant details became known—but not before the Times retained a copy.

“At least five of the 20 largest ‘savings’ appeared to be exaggerated, according to federal data and interviews with the nonprofits whose grants were on the list,” the Times reported.

The largest item DOGE claimed to have produced savings from included a $1.75 billion grant distributed by USAID. But the recipient of the grant, a public health nonprofit called Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, told the Times that not only had the grant not been terminated but the funds had already been fully distributed. That means that slashing the program would have resulted in exactly $0.00 in federal savings.

The MAGA right is seething after anti-vax conspiracy theorist Dave Weldon—Trump’s pick to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—had his nomination pulled at the last minute.

Weldon, a former physician and representative, was getting ready for his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday when the call to withdraw his nomination came down, according to Axios. Even Robert F. Kennedy expressed doubt with Weldon’s confirmation, a source told Axios. But the far right is taking Weldon’s axing personally. 

“Weldon—who is ‘Make America Healthy Again’—his nomination was pulled. The rumor is about they didn’t want questioning on measles,” Steve Bannon said on his War Room podcast. “That would be unsatisfactory. You can’t pull him over measles. No way. Impossible. So we gotta get to the bottom of that. 

“This just puts the last nail in the coffin. CDC is no longer a legitimate agency.  No one is going to believe anything they say anymore,” one far-right account posted on X. “Just SHUT IT DOWN and let the states make their own health recommendations.”

“This is absolutely devastating for MAHA. The antisemites are out for blood, and Trump is showing weakness in the last area he should: commitment to @SecKennedy agenda. It’s beginning to look very bleak,” said another. 

“Dave Weldon, a good man, no longer in the running for CDC.  Weldon recognizes the problem with mercury in vaccines, supports parents who do not want to have their newborns vaxxed vs STDs, and drafted the ‘Weldon Amendment’ protecting physicians of conscience. If not Dave—who?” one supporter opined.

“Personally, I’m devastated to hear this news. Dave Weldon has been a figure in this fight before RFKjr. He’s remained out of the spotlight since he left congress, but the groundwork he laid made those of us with vax injured children hopeful when Trump nominated him,” yet another MAHA supporter wrote on X. “This is such a profound loss. Whoever they get won’t be nearly as aware & committed to doing the research that should have been done decades ago. The autism epidemic marches on. Sad day.”

Donald Trump’s family members are in discussions to take a financial stake into Binance, a cryptocurrency firm that pleaded guilty in 2023 to money laundering.

Meanwhile, the company’s founder and largest shareholder, Changpeng Zhao, who served four months in prison on related charges, is also seeking a pardon from President Trump, The Wall Street Journal reports. Binance reached out to Trump allies in 2024, hoping to strike a business deal with the family to restore the company’s presence in the U.S.

The details of the financial stake, or whether it’s contingent on a pardon are not yet known. The Trumps could make a direct investment or go through World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture launched in September in which the Trump family has a stake. Steve Witkoff, who works in the Trump administration as an envoy to the Middle East and for the war in Ukraine, is also reportedly involved with the talks, although the Trump administration denies it.

The move would raise questions of a conflict of interest, especially if a pardon comes with it. Trump’s businesses have been involved in dealings that seem to conflict with his duties as president, especially the Trump Organization’s deal with Saudi Arabia for a new Trump Tower.

Trump’s decision to create a cryptocurrency “strategic reserve” seems to be aimed at making his wealthy associates richer, and the launch of “meme coins” by himself and his wife Melania are a blatant grift designed to line the couple’s pockets. If a deal with Binance goes through, the president and his family will once again prove that all they care about is money.