The media's mind cannot comprehend the Trump narrative
Decoding Trump's presser, which for him, is not weird at all
I’m sorry. I owe you all an apology. I should not have to write about this, because I’ve been writing about this for ten years. But the media mind cannot comprehend Donald Trump or how he speaks. Once again, we cover this territory, but I don’t think it will do any good, as the reporters are programmed to do things one way only.
Trump had a presser at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday. He said very little that was new to the gaggle of reporters who cover him. But the stuff that made news is really the same old thing. Who would ask a president-elect if he intended to use the U.S. military to invade Greenland, or to retake the Panama Canal? And what kind of answer would they expect to hear from Trump? The word “duh” comes to mind. So the media runs up to the football like Charlie Brown and Trump pulls it away like Lucy.
In this case, Trump, in the middle of a rant on Jack Smith and weaponized justice, the Hague, Syria, Afghanistan, Joe Biden, drilling, windmills and such, threw out a reference to the Gulf of Mexico being renamed the “Gulf of America,” and a dig at President Jimmy Carter and the Panama Canal. He “gave it to them for $1 and they were supposed to treat us well.”
Of course, the media bit.
“Mr. President, thank you. I wanted to touch on the world on fire that you mentioned, but let's start if we could with your references to Greenland and the Panama Canal and so forth. Can you assure the world that, as you try to get control of these areas, you are not going to use military or economic coercion?”
Now first, a pet peeve. This was not a presidential press conference. It was a media event hosted at Mar-a-Lago by the president-elect, who, until January 20th, is a private citizen. The decorum of calling Trump “Mr. President” is unnecessary, but likely offered to keep on Trump’s good side.
Trump: “No.”
Reporter: “And can you tell us a little bit about what your plan is? Are you going to negotiate a new treaty? Are you going to ask the Canadians to hold a vote? What is the strategy? And I -”
Trump: “I can't assure you -- you're talking about Panama and Greenland. No, I can't assure you on either of those two. But I can say this, we need them for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military.”
Reporter: nonplussed.
Trump: “I'm not going to commit to that. Now it might be that you'll have to do something. Look, the Panama Canal is vital to our country. It's being operated by China -- China. And we gave the Panama Canal to Panama; we didn't give it to China. And they've abused it. They've abused that gift. It should have never been made, by the way.”
Okay, that’s the story everyone is reporting. And once they get down to the small seed of truth there, we will see what Trump is talking about.
I wrote about Jimmy Carter and the Panama Canal before. Carter really had no choice, because the Canal Zone had become a colonial mess, and the measures it took for the U.S. military to hold it made us look like the British Raj to Central America. I mean, there was no Panama when we built the canal. The deal to build it was negotiated with Columbia. The U.S. betrayed Columbia and sided with Panamanian rebels in 1903, “purchased” the Canal Zone, and made Panama a U.S. protectorate right up until just before World War II.
The cost to keep our troops in the Canal Zone and administer it was high. We had 10,000 soldiers there, and we were constantly dealing with typical colonial issues (“the natives are restless”). Giving the Canal Zone to Panama rid us of a problem, not an opportunity. Also, the transfer didn’t officially happen until December 31, 1999. The treaty Carter negotiated was ratified by the U.S. Senate. There’s no going back on it.
So what was Trump talking about? And what about the Chinese, who he said are “at both ends” of the canal? That’s the question, and the media was totally unprepared for it.
The Panama Canal Authority, which runs the canal, awarded a large contract for the Fourth Bridge project to a consortium composed of the China Communications Construction Company Ltd., and the China Harbour Engineering Company. This happened in 2018, while—checking notes—Donald Trump was president.
Before that, it was well known that the authority had a 25-year agreement with Hutchison Whampoa to run the entry ports on the Atlantic and Pacific ends of the canal. That company is based in Hong Kong, which is now controlled by the communist Chinese. The Panama Canal Authority renewed Hutchison’s contract in 2021. In return, Chinese investors poured $2.5 billion into the canal.
The issue here is that China has been, not so quietly, building ties and influence in Central America, and South America, for decades. In fact, they do have a lot of influence and control over companies that operate both ends of the canal, and they do see a profit from canal operations. Chinese companies are the prime contractor on many improvement projects awarded by the authority controlling the canal.
But the treaty that governs our deal with Panama has an important feature. The U.S. enjoys perpetual rights of defense of the canal. In time of war or emergency, we have the unlimited right to take military measures to protect our traffic, and to keep the canal from benefitting enemies of the United States (i.e. its neutrality). We don’t need anyone’s permission to go into Panama and do this.
Anytime Trump decides to declare some emergency worthy of sending our forces in, it’s legal under the treaty. So Trump’s message is simple, and it’s the message of a Mafia don: it’s Michael Corleone making an offer for Moe Greene’s casino. An offer they can’t refuse. Ditch the Chinese, or maybe something will happen to get the U.S. military “more involved” in the canal. But nobody is asking that specific question, because the reporters want to sink Trump’s message. Instead, they made his point for him.
Trump has been on the Panama Canal kick for a few weeks. Just before Christmas, he posted on Truth Social, “Welcome to the United States Canal!” Most of the media (exception, the New York Post) didn’t go get the facts, because they’re not interested in helping Trump—which actually helps Trump!
It’s the same with Greenland and Canada. Now, Canada is just trolling. Nothing in the world will get a Canadian incensed in the way misidentifying them as an American will. It’s built-in to their royalist, pre-Revolutionary DNA. You’ve never heard of the Canadian Revolution, and that’s because there never was one. Offering the possibility of coercion to make Canada part of the United States stirs the blood of all good Canadians in a way nothing else could ever do. It also builds a nationalistic wave in Canada that recent immigrants won’t catch. Trump’s play on the troll is to move Canada more into alignment with MAGA, which, with Justin Trudeau’s departure, is happening. Watch Canada go native.
As for Greenland, I made my case on that. I have no problem supporting Greenland’s independence from Denmark. If they choose to come under our umbrella, let Elon Musk give all 56,000 of them Teslas. They can use the battery to run the heater while the sled dogs pull it behind.
Trump takes a certain fact, which he has concealed from the media, who themselves have no clue what he’s talking about and are not experts at anything; he wraps this fact in a giant, golden bow of lies and distortions; he presents it to the media. They take the gift and try to unwrap it, leading to hysteria; but eventually the fact itself is discussed, and Trump’s point gets made.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat. He does this over and over, and the media helps him reflexively.
And one more thing I haven’t seen much coverage on—thank you to Forbes for covering it. At the very start of Trump’s presser, he introduced Hussain Sajwani, the second wealthiest person in the United Arab Emirates. Sajwani is reportedly worth $5 billion. He pledged $20 billion to build data centers in the U.S., in the midwest. Where is he going to get the $20 billion? He didn’t say. Who are the data centers for? He didn’t say.
What else has Sajwani done? His Damac real estate development firm built the Trump golf course in Dubai in 2017—while Trump was president. Sajwani spent New Years Eve in 2016 at Mar-a-Lago, just before Trump was sworn in for his first term. Where was he this New Years Eve? At Mar-a-Lago, hanging out with Trump and Musk.
Trump promised a “golden age” of American business in his presser. It’s pretty obvious who will be getting the gold. Build him a golf course, or finance his campaign, and you get the gold. Trump’s unspoken motto is to echo Peru’s strongman from the 1930s, General Óscar Benavides. “For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.”
Panama gets it. China gets it. Denmark will get it. Greenland is learning. Canada will never get it. And most of the American media is incapable of comprehending it.
RACKET NEWS ON BLUE SKY: If you’re on Blue Sky, the alternative to the app formerly known as Twitter, so are we! Follow us at @newsracket.bsky.social.
SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS: You can follow us on social media at several different locations. Official Racket News pages include:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewsRacket
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/NewsRacket
Mastodon: https://federated.press/@RacketNews
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@theracketnews
David: https://www.threads.net/@captainkudzu71
Steve: https://www.threads.net/@stevengberman
Our personal accounts on the platform formerly known as Twitter:
David: https://twitter.com/captainkudzu
Steve: https://twitter.com/stevengberman
Jay: https://twitter.com/curmudgeon_NH
Thanks again for subscribing! Don’t forget to share us with your friends!
I actually grew up in the vestiges of the Canal Zone in the 80s and 90s and was there during Operation Just Cause when the U.S. came for Noriega.
When I was growing up, the CZ as we all called it had already ceased to be sovereign American territory. It was an American enclave surrounded by U.S. military bases but nominally Panamanian and under the civilian administration of the Canal Authority - whose management was all American.
The irony of the CZ was enormous. Everybody hated Carter and Democrats and were, and my generation are, loyal Republicans (not me, but that is a different story). They saw the reversion of the CZ as paradise lost, and with good reason, it was the greatest experiment in socialism the U.S. has ever seen. We aren’t talking really crappy everybody is poor socialism, but unlimited taxpayer funding where everybody is very comfortable socialism - the sort that can’t actually exist across any nation.
Imagine a civilian place with no private property ownership, where generations of a family could grow up in comfortable houses provided to them by the government. Imagine a place with no private commerce or private schools where your only choices were government and more government.
This is to say nothing of the segregation that existed in the CZ and the subjugation of the Panamanian people in their own country (the CZ was like a Berlin Wall Cutting the country in half you couldn’t get from one side to the other unless the Americans allowed you to and being government bureaucrats, they didn’t like allowing anything). Colonialism with socialism.
First, you made it clear that the U.S. has perpetual rights to defend our country and our interests from foreign enemies in the Canal Zone. You explain how the inept press, uninterested in researching all the facts, understanding or helping Trump, does not understand the complexities of the Canal situation. That is why they do not ask the right questions. You explain Trump’s position and strategy in dealing with the stupid, hostile press, and accuse him of presenting a “ fact” and wrapping it with “ lies and distortions.” It seems to me Trump has both a strategic plan for the Canal and for dealing with the press that he wisely does not reveal every detail about so that our foreign and domestic enemies can counter it. So I do not understand exactly what the lies and distortions you accuse Trump of are: Can you tell me what they are?