The new president of the United States believes in fairness, and says the running of the Panama Canal has been very unfair.
Even though President Trump’s thunderous ‘Golden Age’ inauguration speech was short on foreign policy objectives, he still managed to slip in his ambitions for the canal. He wants it back in American control, partly because US cargo ships, he complains, are paying over the odds for using it. He is also worried about Chinese encroachment at each end.
Inauguration addresses are not generally seen as an opportunity to lay out a blueprint for overcoming America’s enemies or to hint at potential territorial ambitions beyond America’s shores.
President Joe Biden in his inauguration address in January 2021 promised to defend America but the thrust of his remarks were about the need to protect democracy and to nurture the soul of America and the American people.
There was no mention of the people of Greenland, but their time will come
President Barack Obama in his first inauguration address spoke of change and hope and the duty to continue what the pioneers of the nation had begun.
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