Trump’s Panama Canal threat underscores hardball diplomatic approach

US President-elect Donald Trump said the Panama Canal should lower its fees, or be given to Washington.

The US built and administered the canal before transitioning control to Panama in 1999.

Trump warned the waterway should not “fall into the wrong hands,” an apparent reference to China, although no Chinese entity manages the flow of ships through the canal.

The threat reflected Trump’s hardball diplomacy, expected to be more pronounced in his second term: He recently mocked Canada as the “51st state.”

The willingness to go after allies “ought to be a warning to other strife-torn governments in places like France, Germany and South Korea, where political chaos and internal divides could make it hard to fight back,” a CNN analyst wrote.