Donald Trump gave a speech to a bunch of right-wing Turning Point USA freaks on Sunday, in which he threatened to take control of the Panama Canal, spewed dangerous anti-vaccine garbage, said he would once again name military bases after Confederate traitors, and seemed annoyed at the “co-president” chatter about Elon Musk.
The speech in Phoenix was the headline of Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest 2024, which celebrated Trump’s victory and the coming Christian holidays with speeches from accused statutory rapist Matt Gaetz; Russian puppets Tucker Carlson, Tim Pool, and Benny Johnson; and convicted felon Roger Stone, among others.
Trump rehashed the greatest hits of his campaign rallies, including the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him and the lie that undocumented immigrants are escaping mental institutions to come to the United States. It wouldn’t be a Trump speech to his echo chamber if he didn’t denigrate windmills.
He also made some new bizarre and incendiary comments.
For one, Trump threatened to take back the Panama Canal from Panama.
“We’re being ripped off at the Panama Canal like we’re being ripped off everywhere else. He just said ‘take it back,’ that’s a good idea,” Trump said, referring to a shouted suggestion from a random audience member.
Trump continued: “It was given to Panama and to the people of Panama, but it has provisions — you’ve got to treat us fairly. And they haven’t treated us fairly. If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America in full, quickly, and without question. I’m not going to stand for it. So to the officials of Panama, please be guided accordingly.”
Panama's president already responded to Trump’s comment.
“As president, I want to clearly state that every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjoining zone is Panama’s and will remain so,” Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said on Sunday, according to Politico. “The sovereignty and independence of our country is non-negotiable.”
This is the third country Trump has threatened with annexation since November’s election, along with Canada and now Greenland—which Trump wanted to buy during his first term in office, an idea which Greenland’s prime minister has rejected.
It’s as if Trump is seemingly taking a page from his favorite dictator hero Vladimir Putin, who Trump said he will likely meet with “as soon as possible” after he’s inaugurated.
But back to AmericaFest. After threatening sovereign nations, Trump went on to spew anti-vaccine garbage, falsely accusing vaccines of leading to increased autism diagnoses—when it’s actually advancements in autism understanding, treatment, and acceptance that has led to more diagnoses.
"Look, something is going on here. When you look at, like, autism from 25 years and you look at it now, something is going on, and I nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” Trump said, referencing the anti-vaccine lunatic who has vowed to go after life-saving vaccines and bring back deadly viruses.
Trump also suggested that the growing narrative that right-wing billionaire Musk is running the show is clearly getting under Trump’s skin. Musk nearly led the country into a government shutdown last week, after tanking a bipartisan funding agreement over a misunderstanding of what was in the bill.
"No, he's not gonna be president, that I can tell you,” Trump said of Musk. “And I'm safe—you know why? He can't be, he wasn't born in this country. Haha."
Lastly, Trump said he wants to rename Alaska’s Denali to Mt. McKinley, after former President William McKinley, whose disastrous tariff policies Trump wants to bring back. Former President Barack Obama in 2015 officially named the mountain Denali, the name Native Alaskans had used for years before it was renamed Mt. McKinley in 1917.
"They took his name off Mount McKinley," Trump lamented.
"He was a great president," Trump added, saying he will "bring back the name of Mount McKinley because I think he deserves it."
Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski did not respond kindly to Trump’s idea.
In a post on X, Murkowski wrote: “There is only one name worthy of North America’s tallest mountain: Denali - the Great One.”
