Recovery of the Panama Canal: A Crucial Step for U.S. Security

"Today, the Secretary of Defense will leave early in the afternoon — and where is he going?
He’s going to Panama, after JD Vance, the Vice President of the United States, and Waltz, the National Security Advisor, went last week — where did they go? Greenland.

Today, our own Rahim Kassam is going with him. Rahim, put it into perspective. How important is this?
The Secretary of Defense is actually going to begin the process of reclaiming the Panama Canal from the hands of the Chinese Communist Party, sir.

Yes, thank you, Steve. Thank you for having me. I’ll soon be heading out to Andrews Air Force Base.
We’ll be traveling with the Secretary of Defense to Panama. He has a packed agenda over the next three days, and I’ll be covering it live across all social platforms and on the National Pulse.

And it really revolves around exactly what you’re talking about, right? It’s been a long time since we’ve seen an assertion of American strength — Manifest Destiny — the idea that...

...as JD Vance said at the start of the administration, things can get done, unlike under the Obama administration, unlike under the Biden administration.

And it’s critical because it fits not only — in fact, it doesn’t just fit with this administration and its next 3-4 years — it’s about the future of American security.

It’s about the future of commerce. It’s about the future of American military and power projection.

And this isn’t the first step, as you said, and it certainly won’t be the last, because what I intend to raise with the Secretary today and tomorrow throughout the trip...

...are other American critical points around the world that have not only been left to deteriorate over time and nearly abandoned by previous administrations...

...but that are now being handed over by so-called allies of America.

One of those, as many of your listeners know — because I know Nigel Farage has been on this show to talk about it in the past — are the Chagos Islands and Diego Garcia, with a critical base there in the Indian Ocean.

And the British Labour government is in the — well, they believe the end game is to effectively hand over these islands to the Chinese Communist Party.

So there’s a lot at stake on this trip, and there’s a lot I intend to get from the Secretary of Defense over the coming days."