Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Let me get to the next story here. Next story I want to get into, to me, this is a top five story, maybe even higher. I know we'll get to the government shutdown. But let's get into this story. The story is about Panama Canal. Rob, where's the Panama Canal? There it is. Panama Court kicks Hong Kong's C.K. Hutchison out of Canal Ports. What do you mean by that? Don't they own it?
They haven't sold it to BlackRock yet, and this is a Financial Times story.
Chapter 2: What is the significance of the Panama Canal in global trade?
This is a very, very big story. And we were at the Pentagon a couple days ago talking to some of the people that were working closely with this. The stuff that we have, we can speak about some of the stuff.
So Panama's top court has annulled a contract for a Hong Kong-based company to operate a pair of ports on the country's famous canal, casting doubt over a deal to sell the terminals and boosting President Trump's effort to reassert U.S.
Chapter 3: Why was CK Hutchison removed from operating Panama Canal ports?
influence in the region. In a unanimous ruling published late on Thursday, the Central American Country Supreme Court said the concession for a unit of C.K. Hutchinson Holdings to run the ports at either end of the Panama Canal was unconstitutional. The case stems from lawsuit dating back to 2021 and a government audit in 2025. alleging irregularities. The ruling will delight the U.S.
president, who vowed last year to take back control of the canal connecting to the Pacific and the Caribbean, and has criticized Chinese influence over the waterway. Kevin Marino, U.S. ambassador to Panama, hailed the ruling as strongly affirming the rule of the law. It confirms that Panama's independent judiciary enforces legal compliance, transparency, and public service obligations.
There's a lot to it. The two canals that they're talking about, Tom, one of them is called the Key Balboa and the other one is called the Crystal Ball. And Jose Raul Molino, who happens to be the president of Panama, I want to say he got elected July of 2024. He's only been in for a minute, a year and a half. And Panama doesn't have a Republican and Democratic party.
It works in a very different way. But this guy is very much pro-law enforcement, pro-borders. He would be considered a conservative. And when he's sitting there looking at the amount of control that China has over Panama, it's like, wait a minute, what is going on here? And he knows where President's at, and he probably also knows that
President Trump may do something like the Cuba and something like the Greenland or Venezuela and some of that stuff, but they actually have a, they have an okay working relationship together. I got some thoughts on this, but Tom, I'll come to you first.
So what's really interesting is we talked about it on this podcast. and we dug up all of the business dealings on what business would own what. Can you pull up the two ports, by the way, that C.K.
Hutchinson owns, Rob, so the audience can see exactly why these two are so important. By the way, C.K.
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Chapter 4: How does the Panama Supreme Court's ruling impact US leverage?
Hutchinson owns about 43 to 45 that Larry Fink and BlackRock was trying to buy, but out of the 43, 45 ports that they have, a couple are in Mexico as well. The two that matters the most are these two. If you want to type in... Key Balboa and Crystal Ball. And just go to Maps, Rob. Key Balboa and Crystal Ball, and then go to Maps. Go ahead, Tom.
Yep. And Hutchinson Wampoa is a huge company with all sorts of things. There was a guy that was over there, Lee Kashin, which people used to refer to him as Lee Cashin, because it seems like every government he talked to, he would get the deal done. So anyhow, as you see the map here, you see how important these two ports are as you go through the Panama Canal, which takes you through Panama.
And by the way, it goes up mountains. They take the boats in. They fill it with water to make the boat go higher. Then they put it, it's called the locks, to the next step, to the next step. It's like making a boat climb stairs through all the Panama Canal. And it's hugely important because that's how Pacific Freight gets to the Gulf of America and then gets over here to Panama.
New Orleans and Houston and Miami and our major ports. So this was a business deal that everyone thought, wow, who's going to own this? Is BlackRock going to make a deal with Hutchinson? There is a deal on the table. And then all of a sudden. HUTCHISON SAYS, WELL, MAYBE I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT. MAYBE I'LL DO IT DIFFERENTLY. AND EVERYBODY TALKED ABOUT IT.
CIA LEAK CAME OUT THAT SAID THAT THE CHINESE WERE PUTTING PRESSURE ON HUTCHISON NOT TO DO IT BECAUSE THE CHINESE HAD BEEN INVESTING IN THE CANAL AND WANTED TO CONTROL IT SO THEY COULD CONTROL THE UNITED STATES AND THE WEST AND TO PUT PRESSURE ON TRADE. THAT'S WHAT THE GAME WAS. What happens is all of a sudden the Panama goes, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. I got elected in 2024.
Why don't we go take a look at this under Panamanian law? Because this isn't just a business deal of who owns what. This is our land. This is our sovereign country. And if you go look over history on how the actual country of Panama was created. You'll see that there was some definite oddities when that happened.
But now, Panama, by the way, they go to their Supreme Court, and the word that Pat read, that you read, was unanimous ruling. So it was unanimous ruling. Interesting how big their Supreme Court is. How big is Panama's Supreme Court? But it was a unanimous ruling with their president, Marino, supporting this, saying, wait a minute, we're going to go back and look at our own laws.
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Chapter 5: What role does China play in Panama's geopolitics?
nine magistrates and nine alternates. And it was so that's nine people voting. So this wasn't a split vote. So something went down in Panama and Panama said, nope, we're not going to let this be a business deal with Hutchinson that's controlled by the Chinese. We're now going to step in here and say, you can't do that. This is our sovereign country.
You may have a business deal here, but this canal is our country. It's part of our security and defense. That's what we're doing. And by the way, here it is. Balboa is the entrance on the Pacific Ocean. See the map there? And I'm glad Pat asked for this. And then Cristobal is the one that's on the Atlantic Ocean.
Yeah, just send this to Rob. So you see the two, why they matter the most. By the way, there are some people that will say the following, Tom. You know what they'll say? Why the hell did Jimmy Carter give this up? This is ours anyways. When you think about it, it's, well, I didn't want a war to happen because of what was going on in 1964, and I wanted to make sure we had good relations.
I didn't want it to be any worse than it was. Panama Canal, if President Trump was president during that time, What would have President Trump done with Panama Canal? Would he have handed it to them? What do you think he would have done at that time?
He would have supported the economic needs of Panama, but kept control of the canal that we built. He would have done that, in your opinion. He would have helped. I think he would have helped Panama.
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Chapter 6: How does the new Panamanian president influence US relations?
What can he do now, Tom? What can he do now? Well, I think what he can do now is I think we are very close. My understanding and what we've heard from people is that we are very close to the people in Panama. We are working diplomatically with them so that they would keep control of their country and not allow the Chinese to do this. This is a big deal.
Well, most people don't realize, and I think we can say the number right, this is a top five international deal on the president's desk.
We can say that.
We can say that much.
I think we can say that much, yeah.
I think so.
And by the way, this is from the people on his team saying that.
Correct. So that tells you how important it is. And when you see the map there and you see how all this freight comes from all over the place, the Panama Canal was the shortcut for east to west. It's a huge economic importance for all the stuff that comes from the Pacific Ocean coming to, again, New Orleans, Montana.
Houston and Miami, which are actually Port Everglades, bigger, are the ports that are bringing product here to the United States.
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Chapter 7: What historical context surrounds the Panama Canal's ownership?
And what Trump is building with this IMEC corridor on that side of the world, on the eastern hemisphere, is this basically super mega trade highway. Between India, the Middle East, that's why he wants to have the Abraham Accords and then ship everything off to Europe. But this is built on trust and alliances where China's built on debt and basically taking down your enemy.
I think the bottom... Go ahead, Tom.
I'm sorry, Pat. No, no, go for it. I think the bottom line here is national security has got two components, economic security and defensive security. Panama Canal is economic security. Greenland is defensive security. And it's pretty straightforward.
So, Pat, what do you do? So what do you do if you're Trump? As the president right now, with everything that he's doing, with Greenland, with, you know, Venezuela, with everything, if you're the president, what's your position? You want to know what the biggest fear is?
So... You know, when you build a company, you start a company, and you feel comfortable with the way you negotiate and you drive things, then your mindset becomes, how long does it take for people to negotiate the way I negotiate? In PHP, Miral can negotiate like me. Tikrin can negotiate like me. Tom knows how to negotiate. But that's about it, to negotiate that way.
And that took years to get to that level of, Negotiation. Okay. So when you leave, you're hoping your existing people will negotiate in your favor favorably, right? Okay. Then you have people that you hope maintain a certain standard. You hope they see your example, that you're still working hard, you're going in, you're not just acting like this rich.
Look how famous I am and how much money I got in. Every day I'm just posting car pictures and stuff that I bought, and the whole identity becomes about lifestyle, right? Instead of standards and leadership to keep growing, right? The challenge Trump has is the following. He only has three more years left. Whatever he builds, what do you think the other guy's going to do?
Whatever he builds, you have to assume whoever comes in after him, if it's somebody on the left, they're going to try to tear up every single thing possible. Lincoln was a two-term president, not a full two-term president, but Lincoln was a term and a half, Tom, am I saying it correctly? Five years? How long was Lincoln in the White House, Rob? Can you look it up?
I want to say five years, five and a half years. Until he was assassinated? until he was assassinated, but I want to see, what is the exact timeline? Four and a half years? A little over four years. Four years and one month. So... Who came after him? Who came after Lincoln? Frederick Johnson? No, I think it's Grant, two years. I thought it was his VP, who is completely ineffective.
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