PDB Afternoon Bulletin | March 5th, 2025: The US 'Reclaims' The Panama Canal & White House Designates Yemen's Houthis A Foreign Terrorist Organization
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What did President Trump announce about the Panama Canal?
It's Wednesday, 5 March. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. We'll kick things off with President Trump's address to Congress last night. Did you catch that? Where he declared that the U.S. is, quote, reclaiming the Panama Canal.
What is the significance of BlackRock's deal involving the Panama Canal?
His statement comes as we learn that the asset manager, BlackRock, has struck a billion-dollar deal to place the canal's ports under U.S. control. Later in the show, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Tuesday that the Trump administration has officially designated the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen as a foreign terrorist organization, reimposing a label that former President Biden had lifted during his administration. But first, today's afternoon spotlight.
Why are the Houthis being designated as a foreign terrorist organization?
We'll begin today with President Trump's address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday evening, where he touted his administration's rapid early moves to rein in government and reshape the geopolitical landscape. The speech largely focused on the Trump administration's achievements stateside, touching on his blitzkrieg of executive actions over the past six weeks. the record drop in illegal migrant encounters at the US border, efforts to overhaul the federal workforce and cut fraud, and his quest to unleash American energy by slashing the regulatory state. He framed his actions thus far as a, quote, common sense revolution, proclaiming, quote, America is back, though the speech drew regular jeers from Democrats, though that's surprising, some of whom walked out of the chamber in protest.
On the foreign policy front, Trump touted his use of tariffs to reshape America's economic relationship with our allies, asking the American people to bear with any economic turbulence that the policies may cause in the short term. He also signaled his willingness to sign a minerals deal with Ukraine to accelerate an end to the war with Russia, and vowed to bring peace to the Middle East by expanding the Abraham Accords from his first term.
How does the US plan to handle China's influence in the Panama Canal?
But I want to focus in on the President's remarks regarding the Panama Canal, which he's long said he intends to take back from the Panamanian government, citing the threat of China's growing influence at the canal's ports. For some context, the American-built canal has been solely controlled by the Panamanian government for 25 years, after the U.S. ended its joint partnership in controlling the strategic waterway back in 1999. On Tuesday evening, Trump said, quote, To further enhance our national security, our administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we've already started doing it. He continued, quote, We didn't give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we're taking it back, end quote.
Now, Trump highlighted a deal announced Tuesday led by the American asset firm BlackRock and a consortium of investors, which have close ties to the White House, to place the canal's ports under U.S. control. The deal, valued at $22.8 billion, will see Hong Kong-based conglomerate C.K. Hutchinson, which operates two of the four major ports at the canal's entrances, sell their stake to the group of U.S. and Swiss investors. That's according to a report by NBC News. Under the terms of the tentative agreement announced Tuesday, the U.S.-led consortium will gain control of 80% of C.K. Hutchinson's subsidiary, Hutchinson Ports, which operates 43 ports in 23 countries around the world. They'll also acquire 90% of Panama ports, which operates the Balboa port on the Pacific side of the canal and the Cristobal port on the Atlantic side. Sources familiar with the potential sale said the White House and members of Congress were briefed on the matter earlier on Tuesday.
While the Chinese firm CK Hutchinson denied that their move to sell had anything to do with politics, Trump touted it Tuesday night as a major victory, implying it was a result of diplomatic pressure exerted by his administration. As a reminder, the economic importance of the canal to America is hard to overstate. Roughly 40% of U.S.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What did President Trump announce about the Panama Canal?
0:12–0:31
2
What is the significance of BlackRock's deal involving the Panama Canal?
0:31–1:00
3
How did Trump's address to Congress highlight his administration's achievements?
1:00
4
Why are the Houthis being designated as a foreign terrorist organization?
0:40–2:16
5
How does the US plan to handle China's influence in the Panama Canal?
2:16–10:57
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The President's Daily Brief
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