In his inaugural address, President Donald Trump reiterated threats he has made about the Panama Canal, claiming, “we’re taking it back.” He’d previously declared that the rates Panama charges for access to the Panama Canal violated the “magnanimous gesture” the U.S. had made in building and transferring the canal. He repeated that 38,000 Americans had died building it, a far-fetched figure (the real number was likely closer to 350 people), but one that bolstered his claim that the U.S.