Donald Trump cast himself both as a peacemaker and fierce defender of US interests in a mercurial return to the White House on Monday, vowing to seize the Panama Canal but also imploring Russia to make a deal on Ukraine.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s insistence that he wants to have the Panama Canal back under U.S. control is feeding nationalist sentiment and worry in Panama, home to the critical trade route and a country familiar with U.

Panama sent a team of auditors on Monday to the local offices of Panama Ports, a subsidiary of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s CK Hutchison Holdings.

Monrovia NSU CHALLENGER bulk carrier transits the expanded canal through Cocoli Locks at the Panama Canal, on the outskirts of Panama City, Panama April 19, 2023. REUTERS/Aris Martinez/File Photo WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Newly sworn-in President Donald Trump vowed on Monday that the United States would take back the Panama Canal as he delivered an inauguration speech in which he invoked the 19th century expansionist doctrine of "Manifest Destiny" in laying out plans for space exploration.