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TRUMP HELPS BLACKROCK BUY PANAMA CANAL PORTS  
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Ben Norton
March 7, 2025
ScheerPost
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_ BlackRock CEO Fink said before the US presidential election in
November 2024 that it “really doesn’t matter” who wins, because
both parties would benefit Wall Street. _

, Erik McGregor / Contributor / Getty Images

 

The Donald Trump administration has made it clear that the top two
priorities of the US government are to weaken China and to strengthen
Wall Street.

The small Central American nation of Panama has found itself at the
center of Trump’s strategy.

In his inauguration speech on January 20, the US president falsely
claimed that “China is operating the [Panama] canal
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“we’re taking it back”. In a press conference two weeks before,
Trump implied that he was willing to use military force to take over
the canal
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Panama refused to give the United States effective control.

On March 4, an agreement was announced in which a consortium led by
the Wall Street giant BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager,
would buy the ports on both sides of the Panama Canal.

The Associated Press noted that this deal will be “effectively
putting the ports under American control
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BlackRock buys up the world

In a speech to the US Congress
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March 4, Donald Trump boasted:

To further enhance our national security, my administration will be
reclaiming the Panama Canal. And we’ve already started doing it.

Just today, a large American company announced they are buying both
ports around the Panama Canal, and lots of other things having to do
with the Panama Canal, and a couple of other canals.

Trump did not name the “large American company”, but it was
BlackRock — leading a consortium that includes its subsidiary Global
Infrastructure Partners.

BlackRock is the world’s biggest investment company. It managed a
record high of $11.6 trillion in assets
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the fourth quarter of 2024. (The top 500 investment managers on Earth
together held $128 trillion in assets
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the end of 2023.)

The Associated Press reported that the BlackRock-led consortium
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controls at least 43 ports in 23 countries. The Wall Street giant’s
subsidiary Global Infrastructure Partners
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central to the US government-sponsored Partnership on Global
Infrastructure and Investment
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which was launched by the Joe Biden administration and the G7.

BlackRock’s billionaire CEO Larry Fink was invited
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Western heads of state at the G7 summit in Italy in 2024, where he
called for “public-private partnerships” to help Wall Street
firms buy up global infrastructure
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formerly colonized countries.

BlackRock has enjoyed a very close relationship with the US
government, under both Democrats and Republicans. Fink said before the
US presidential election in November 2024 that it “really doesn’t
matter” who wins
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because both parties would benefit Wall Street.

Bloomberg reported that Fink personally called Trump
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asked him to help BlackRock purchase the Panama Canal ports. The
financial media outlet noted that the billionaire CEO bragged of
BlackRock’s deep links with governments worldwide, stating, “We
are increasingly the first call”.

As Yahoo News put it, “BlackRock’s Panama Canal deal is latest win
for chief Larry Fink in strong start to Trump era
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Trump’s billionaire-run administration

There are at least 13 billionaires in the Trump administration
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including the president himself, as well as the richest oligarch on
Earth, Elon Musk.

Musk spent at least $288 million funding
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political campaigns of Trump and other far-right Republicans in the
2024 election, which made him the largest single donor in the United
States, according to the Washington Post.

Another major donor to Trump’s 2024 campaign was Stephen Schwarzman
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the billionaire CEO of Blackstone, the world’s biggest alternative
asset manager. Schwarzman is one of the highest paid executives on
Wall Street. He made $1.6 billion
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salary and dividends in 2024 alone.

Blackstone is the largest landlord in the United States, owning more
than 300,000 residential housing units
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Although they are separate financial services companies, BlackRock
owns a 6.7% stake in Blackstone
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BlackRock also manages the biggest Bitcoin fund on Earth
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In late February, BlackRock added its bitcoin ETF to its model
portfolios
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A few days later, Trump announced that his administration will create
a “Crypto Strategic Reserve
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so the US government can effectively backstop bitcoin and other
cryptocurrencies, to prevent their price from drastically falling,
thereby reducing volatility and benefiting massive institutional
investors on Wall Street.

Targeting China, Marco Rubio seeks to impose colonial Monroe Doctrine
in Latin America

To run the US State Department, Donald Trump selected war hawk Marco
Rubio, a hard-line neoconservative who is closely allied with the
Latin American right wing.

Rubio’s first trip abroad as secretary of state was to Panama, where
he threatened the Central American nation over its relations with
China.

The Trump administration demanded that the Panamanian government force
the Hong Kong-based company CK Hutchison Holdings to sell its stake in
the ports surrounding the canal.

Immediately after Rubio’s trip, Panama withdrew from China’s
global infrastructure program, the Belt and Road Initiative.

In an interview with Fox News
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February 26, Rubio and the conservative host Brian Kilmeade
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referring to Latin America as the “backyard” of the United States:

BRIAN KILMEADE: Have we allowed, over decades, China to make their way
into Central and South America, and is Panama an example of that?

MARCO RUBIO: Yes.

BRIAN KILMEADE: We’ve just not put enough attention in our own
backyard. Is that what you heard when you went there?

MARCO RUBIO: It is.

…

And I’m very happy that, after our visit, I think the same day I was
there, Panama became the first country in Latin America, in the
Western Hemisphere, to get out of the Belt and Road initiative.

And I think there will be more news coming up soon, with regards to
Panama, all positive for [North] America.

After his trip to Panama, Secretary of State Rubio traveled to El
Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic
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The Trump administration has sought to revive the
202-year-old colonial Monroe Doctrine
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threatening countries in Latin America and across the western
hemisphere, treating the region as the US imperial “sphere of
influence”
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During Trump’s first term, multiple US officials invoked the Monroe
Doctrine
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justify aggressive meddling and coup attempts in Latin America,
including neoconservative National Security Advisor John Bolton and
CIA Director turned Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

US officials have frequently violated the independence and sovereignty
of countries in Latin America. Today, Washington is essentially
ordering them to cut their ties with China — which is the largest
trading partner of the region, excluding Mexico.

Rubio has constantly demonized China as the biggest so-called
“threat” to the United States
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In his Senate confirmation hearing in January (in which 99 of the 100
members voted
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confirm him), Rubio said (emphasis added):

THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA, THAT LEADS THE PRC, IS THE MOST POTENT
AND DANGEROUS NEAR-PEER ADVERSARY THIS NATION HAS EVER CONFRONTED.
They have elements that the Soviet Union never possessed. They are a
technological adversary and competitor, an industrial competitor, an
economic competitor, a geopolitical competitor, a scientific
competitor now — in every realm.

IT’S AN EXTRAORDINARY CHALLENGE. IT’S ONE THAT I BELIEVE WILL
DEFINE THE 21ST CENTURY. When they write the book about the 21st
century, there’s going to be some chapters in there about Putin;
there’s going to be some chapters in there about some of these other
places; but the bulk of that book about the 21st century will be not
just about China, but about the relationship between China and the
United States, and what direction it went.

In the February interview with Fox News, Rubio made similar comments,
fearmongering about China:

BRIAN KILMEADE: You’ve called China the most dangerous near-peer
adversary the US has faced.

MARCO RUBIO: Ever!

BRIAN KILMEADE: So we need concrete steps to face off with them

MARCO RUBIO: Yeah.

BRIAN KILMEADE: Who clearly are building up their military to face off
with us.

MARCO RUBIO: Yes.

Rubio argued that the US government needs to re-industrialize, invest
heavily in military industries, and remove China from supply chains in
order to prepare for a potential war in the future.

BEN NORTON is a journalist, writer, and filmmaker. He is the founder
and editor of Geopolitical Economy Report, and is based in China.

ScheerPost - Your home for independent journalism

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