NO HARD FEELINGS?

Rubio’s First Official Visit Will Be to a Country Trump Already Offended

The newly-confirmed Secretary of State is heading to Panama.

Donald Trump’s newly-confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s first international trip will be to—where else?—Panama. Sources told Reuters that during the first week of February he will also make stops in Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and El Salvador. The State Department has not yet confirmed the visit. During Trump’s inauguration speech, the president accused Panama of secretly letting the Chinese operate the canal, the 51-mile waterway that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean, facilitating shipping trade between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. “We didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back,” Trump said. President Jose Raul Mulino responded by saying the canal “is and will continue to be Panamanian,” and alerted the United Nations about Trump’s remarks. The U.S. largely built the canal and administered the territory that surrounded it for decades, until the U.S. and Panama signed a series of accords starting in 1977 that eventually turned the canal back over to full Panamanian control.