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THE WEEKLY REVEAL
Saturday, July 26, 2025
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The Trump administration’s threat to reclaim the Panama Canal is destabilizing one of the US's closest partners in Latin America
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During his campaign for the presidency, Donald Trump talked a lot about pulling the United States out of international treaties and disentangling from military operations abroad. Once in office, he started talking about the idea of Manifest Destiny, that the country’s expansion was both justified and inevitable. In some cases, that’s meant turning the tables on America’s friends and allies.
For this week’s show, Reveal reporter Nate Halverson and Panamanian journalist Andrea Salcedo investigate how the Trump administration’s threats to reclaim the Panama Canal are fueling protests and destabilizing a longtime ally. Trump has said military force may be necessary to retake control of the canal from China.
“China is operating the Panama Canal, and we didn't give it to China, we gave it to Panama, and we're taking it back,” Trump said in January.
But the administration’s allegations about China’s control over the canal perplex many Panamanians.
“We just said wow, how many people can be wrong about the Chinese having a lot of influence over the Panama Canal?” says Jorge Luis Quijano, the canal’s top administrator from 2012 to 2019.
The Trump administration’s threats against Panama are also reviving painful memories of the 1989 US invasion that claimed the lives of an estimated 500 Panamanians.
For wider context, host Al Letson speaks with Mother Jones reporter David Corn, who wrote about the Panama Canal in his book American Psychosis. David talks about how reclaiming the canal has been used as a political cudgel by conservatives, from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump. Al also speaks with Emma Ashford, a foreign policy expert at the Stimson Center, about how Panama fits into the Trump administration’s other moves on the international front.
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Ibram X. Kendi vs. America’s “Antiracism Backlash”
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Alex Brandon/AP
It’s Al Letson, host of More To The Story. This week I’m sharing my conversation with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. His book How to Be an Antiracist came out in 2019, which—I’ll be honest—was the first time I’d heard the term “antiracist.” A year later, during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, Ibram became a prominent voice on racism and created the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University. But with that spotlight came fame—and criticism.
Not only were Ibram’s ideas targeted by conservatives but he was also accused of financially mismanaging his center at BU. The university ultimately cleared Ibram of wrongdoing but the center closed earlier this summer. Later this year, he’ll continue his work at Howard University, where he’ll join colleagues like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Nikole Hannah-Jones (who appeared earlier this year on More To The Story).
This week, Ibram and I discuss his time at Boston University and his new book, Malcolm Lives!. Malcolm X’s autobiography was a life-changing read for me, so it’s great to see Ibram bringing the story of Malcolm X to a younger generation. I hope you’ll join us both for this episode of More To The Story.
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