We are all learning that when President Trump states what may appear to be a wonky off-the-cuff idea, it’s probably wise to seriously consider that he means it, that there’s a strong likelihood that it will happen, and that it turns out to make good sense.
Take his stated intent to retake control of the Panama Canal, for example, a strategically critical 51-mile-long waterway constructed between 1903 and 1914 connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that the U.S. financed at the cost of about $13 billion in today’s money — the most expensive project in U.S. history at that time — which the U.S. under President Jimmy Carter turned back to Panama in 1999 for currently less than a dollar.
Meanwhile, the U.S. which remains the largest provider of canal transit fees, currently $3.8 billion annually, pays the most to keep it open.
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