Trump: All U.S. Commerce And Military Ships Should Pass Through Suez And Panama Canals ‘Free Of Charge’

A cargo ship and tugboat sail through the Cocoli Locks at the Panama Canal, in Panama, on August 12, 2024. Next August 15 the Panama Canal celebrates its 110th inauguration anniversary. (Photo by ARNULFO FRANCO / AFP) (Photo by ARNULFO FRANCO/AFP via Getty Images)
A cargo ship and tugboat sail through the Cocoli Locks at the Panama Canal, in Panama, on August 12, 2024. (Photo by ARNULFO FRANCO/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN Staff Blake Wolf
8:44 AM – Sunday, April 27, 2025

President Donald Trump asserted on Saturday that American military and cargo ships should travel through the Panama Canal and Suez Canal for free.

The Panama Canal was built by the United States starting in 1904, and was ceded to Panama by former President Jimmy Carter in 1977.

“American Ships, both Military and Commercial, should be allowed to travel, free of charge, through the Panama and Suez Canals! Those canals would not exist without the United States of America. I’ve asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to immediately take care of, and memorialize, this situation!” Trump wrote.

Last December, President Trump accused China of having major influence over the management of the Panama Canal, while accusing Panama officials of charging the United States “exorbitant prices.”

“When President Jimmy Carter foolishly gave it away, for One Dollar, during his term in office, it was solely for Panama to manage, not China, or anyone else. It was likewise not given for Panama to charge the United States, its Navy, and corporations doing business within our country, exorbitant prices and rates of passage…The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary that has been bestowed to Panama by the U.S.,” Trump wrote at the time.

The Panama Canal plays a critical role in connecting the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean, while the Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.

“The Panama Canal is considered a VITAL National Asset for the United States, due to its critical role to America’s Economy and National Security. A secure Panama Canal is crucial for U.S. commerce, and the rapid deployment of the Navy from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and drastically cuts shipping times to U.S. ports. The United States is the number one user of the Canal, with over 70 percent of all transits heading to, or from, U.S. ports,” Trump added.

The president has repeatedly expressed his interest in “taking back” the canal while previously refusing to rule out economic or military force to do so, although President Trump’s new proposal of allowing U.S. ships to pass through for free may alter his previous stance.

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Hamas Agrees To Free Edan Alexander, Last Living U.S. Hostage

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 07: Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, poses for photos with the family of Edan Alexander at Ohel Chabad Lubavitch on October 07, 2024 in New York City. Trump commemorated the one-year anniversary of October 7th by visiting to Ohel Chabad Lubavitch, the final resting place of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson the Rebbe, with the family of Edan Alexander, who was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7th, in attendance. On October 7, the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel from Gaza by land, sea, and air, killing more than 1,200 people and taking Israeli soldiers and civilians hostage. To date, there are over 90 people still being held hostage by Hamas. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, poses for photos with the family of Edan Alexander at Ohel Chabad Lubavitch on October 07, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

OAN Staff James Meyers
7:27 AM – Friday, March 14, 2025

Terrorist group Hamas said Friday that they would be releasing the last living American hostage Edan Alexander.

The 21-year-old New Jersey native will be the only living hostage in the next release, which will include the bodies of four dual-nationals who died in captivity, the terror group said, as negotiations have led to talks of the second phase of a ceasefire deal with Israel.

However, it wasn’t immediately clear when the transfer would take place, or which parties participated in negotiating the deal.

Alexander, who enlisted in the Israeli army, was 19 when he was taken from his base in southern Israel during the October 7th terrorist attack that sparked the war.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been calling for his release as a “top priority.”

“Edan Alexander is very important to us — as all the hostages are — but Edan Alexander is an American, and he’s injured, so he’s a top priority for us,” Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said just last week.

In recent days, meetings between Hamas leaders and U.S. hostage negotiator Adam Boehler were focused on getting him released from captivity.

This also comes after the White House made a surprise announcement last week, saying that American officials had been engaging in “ongoing talks and discussions” with Hamas officials, which went away from a long-standing U.S. policy of not directly engaging with terrorists.

Nevertheless, Hamas’ Friday announcement comes as talks have continued in Qatar to try to get to the next stage of the ceasefire.

The U.S., Qatar, and Egypt have been trying to reconcile differences between the terrorist group and the Jewish State to restart negotiations in order to release the remaining hostages that are being held in Hamas captivity and deliver aid into the war-battered area.

On March 2nd, Israel blocked the entry of aid trucks into Gaza as a standoff over the truce escalated, with Hamas calling on mediators to intervene.

Since January 19th, the fighting in Gaza has been put on pause under the first phase of the three-phase ceasefire deal.

Currently, Hamas has exchanged 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

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First Muslim Queer Immigrant Councilwoman Says America Isn’t Free

Will the oppression in Duluth never end?

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Duluth, Minnesota, a place that most liberals would agree was too white, finally made history when the otherwise boring 87% white city elected its first Muslim lesbian councilwoman.

Azrin Awal, a Bangladeshi immigrant, moved to Duluth to attend the University of Minnesota, got a degree in gender and sexuality studies, co-founded the local NAACP chapter (despite not being black), was part of the Muslim Students Association and decided to run for public office because Duluth was Islamophobic and needed to fundamentally change to suit her tastes.

And that’s after only being there for 5 years.

But they were busy years in which the Bangladeshi immigrant claimed she was a victim of Islamophobia because she was called a 'terrorist' and had a hijab snatched from her head.

She also came out as ‘queer’ and her pronouns are either “She/They” or “She/Them/Theirs”. She took part in ‘drag shows’ and discussions about ‘Islamophobia’, telling students that “Islam means peace”, but not telling them what happens to ‘queer’ people under Islamic Sharia law.

But that’s probably because, despite the list of pronouns, Awal is married to a white guy.

Much like her neighboring role model, Rep. Ilhan Omar.

Awal got a job working at the DEI office at the UM Duluth which she still holds, to help ‘queer’ students. A year before her marriage, Awal told her colleagues that she was working “on self-actualizing her identities as Muslim, Bengali, Asian-American, and queer woman.”

The ‘queer’ part apparently still needs more ‘actualizing’. Or will be around election time.

The LGBTQ+ Victory Institute listed her as ‘Queer’ and so did election materials and pitches. Even while married to a former fellow white male classmate at UM Duluth, a waste engineer working for a state government agency, her official City Council bio states that “Azrin identifies as a Muslim, Bengali, Asian-American, and queer woman dedicated to equity and social justice.”

Much like men who identify as women, Arzin is a married woman who identifies as ‘Queer’.

It was always implausible that a Muslim Students Association member, an Islamist group with roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, was going to have an openly lesbian member.

But the pronouns came in handy when building her woke credentials for public office: Awal also claimed that she understood homelessness because had been homeless when she had to sleep on other people’s couches for a few months in between finding housing.

And with the promise of being the first Muslim woman, the first Asian woman, and the first ‘queer’ woman on the Duluth City Council, Awal was endorsed by the DSA and local lefties. She campaigned by accusing Duluth of suffering from “Xenophobia and Islamophobia”.

“I’m getting a lot of pushback,” Awal complained during her campaign. “But I’m also opening people’s minds and forcing people to reevaluate what equity means.”

At a council meeting in February, Awal demonstrated her definition of ‘equity’ by praising a call from an anti-American activist to banish the Pledge of Allegiance from council meetings.

“It’s becoming increasingly clear that our flag doesn’t necessarily stand for freedom for everyone in the nation,” Awal claimed.

Azrin Awal did not discuss the superior level of freedom to be obtained in her native Bangladesh, which recently underwent a brutal Islamist coup against the minority Hindu population, and where homosexuality is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Awal has claimed that her family in Bangladesh were “spiritual leaders, they were freedom fighters”. While she didn’t go into any details, her father Mohammed Awal came to America in 1991. A year earlier, Bangladeshis had overthrown the Islamist regime of General Hussain Mohammed Ershad. It is unknown what side of the conflict Awal’s family was on, but the description of them as “spiritual leaders” raises the possibility that they were Islamists.

While advocating against Israel’s battle with Hamas, Awal claimed that the issue was ‘deeply personal to her, citing her ancestors who fought oppression in Bangladesh.’

Awal and her family lived in the formerly bucolic Maple Grove suburb of Minneapolis, which was targeted for refugee resettlement by Lutheran Social Services, among other ‘resettlers’, and now has a sizable Muslim population. Some are worried that Duluth may go the same way.

After the Hamas attacks of Oct 7, Azrin Awal took to denouncing Israel and drafted a ‘ceasefire’ resolution falsely accusing Israel of “genocide”, citing fake Hamas propaganda numbers and calling for an end to military aid to Israel, which the Duluth council rejected by a margin of 5-4.

She falsely claimed that Israel is an “apartheid state” and Hamas-run Gaza an “open-air prison”.

In response to Oct 7, she posted a video by an affiliate of Minneapolis pro-terror group member who claimed that Israel controls the media. Awal later joined with the Marxist and Islamist-led ‘Uncommitted’ movement to protest Biden’s failure to completely withdraw support from Israel in order to enable a Hamas victory.

Azrin Awal promoted and took part in an event featuring Mariam El-Khatib of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) who had promoted Hamas propaganda and justified the stabbings of two Rabbis along with a mother and her two-year-old daughter. AMP has been accused of having ties to Hamas. While claiming to want ‘peace’, Awal was promoting Hamas sympathizers.

Terrorist sympathizers who described a stabbed 2-year-old girl as an “extremist”.

When Awal claims that “our flag doesn’t necessarily stand for freedom for everyone in the nation”, the real question may be how the Bangladeshi Muslim immigrant defines ‘freedom’.

America is free enough that even Muslim immigrants who hate this country can get elected to higher office across Minnesota and everywhere else ‘refugees’ from terror states are ‘settled’.

But it’s never free enough until it can be entirely destroyed and replaced with something else.

Those who want to destroy America can wear the costumes of social justice over their hijabs, can pretend to be woke and even use pronouns, but underneath it all, they hate us.

They hate America.

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Elon Musk To Provide Free Starlink Cell Service To L.A. Residents Affected By Fires

ALTADENA, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 08: A person walks past a home burning during the Eaton Fire on January 8, 2025 in Altadena, California. Over 1,000 structures have burned, with two people dead, in wildfires fueled by intense Santa Ana Winds across L.A. County. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
A person walks past a home burning during the Eaton Fire on January 8, 2025 in Altadena, California. Over 1,000 structures have burned, with two people dead, in wildfires fueled by intense Santa Ana Winds across L.A. County. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

OAN Staff Blake Wolf
12:29 PM – Thursday, January 9, 2025

As multiple roaring fires across Los Angeles County destroy thousands of homes, buildings, and other structures, cell service has dropped out across large swaths of the city, prompting Elon Musk to provide free Starlink cell service to residents in need.

At least five individuals have now died, stemming from the fires becoming intensified by the strong Santa Ana winds, and nearly 180,000 individuals have also been placed under evacuation orders.

The two largest fires, the Palisades fire and the Eaton fire, have so far resulted in at least 27,000 acres being consumed in the flames. Cell towers are now being destroyed, effectively killing phone service for individuals in disaster areas, prompting the SpaceX founder to step in.

Los Angeles residents without cell service who are attempting to reach friends and family will reportedly now be able to call whomever they wish, thanks to SpaceX owner and Trump-ally Elon Musk.

“SpaceX will provide free Starlink terminals to affected areas in LA tomorrow morning,” Musk announced in an X post.

Musk’s post was in response to a Fox 11 broadcast, which was only capable of providing a live feed due to his Starlink.

“The only reason you’re able to see us right now is because of Starlink. There’s absolutely no cell service at all in this whole area,” the reporter stated as a house burned to ashes behind her.

Musk’s Starlink system is also able to provide internet service, despite the lack of cell towers, by utilizing a “constellation” of thousands of satellites in Low-Earth Orbit.

Musk criticized the Democrat California governor for previously refusing to take preventative measures aimed at curbing wildfires, blaming California’s “nonsense regulations.”

“These fires are easily avoidable, but nonsensical regulations in California prevent action from being taken, so year after year homes burn down and more people die,” Musk wrote in an X post.

“My friend just texted me that his house burned down again. His old house also burned down in an uncontrolled wildfire several years ago. California could easily stop these massive wildfires, but refuses to put in fire breaks for bogus environmental reasons,” he added.

The Palisades fire, which has burned through nearly 27 square miles, is still 0% contained as of Thursday morning, according to Cal Fire.

The Eaton fire, which has claimed all five lives, also remains at 0% containment as of Thursday morning.

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Biden Frees Men Who Scammed $5 Billion With Over 1 Million Victims

The single greatest mass jailbreak of corrupt scammers in history.

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Some people lost their life savings while others lost their dreams in a $900 million fraud that was described as one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history and left behind 1 million victims.

Investors in 'Zeek' had taken out loans and mortgages on their homes expecting to get a 125% return on their investment. Victims included the parents of a leukemia patient who were trying to pay for their daughter’s hospital visits. And while some of the money was recovered, people in towns like Lexington, North Carolina, where ZeekRewards had its office, are still suffering.  Zeek’s victims were working class people who didn’t understand what they were getting into.

ZTE CEO Paul Burks, who made millions from the scheme, was convicted of wire and mail fraud and sentenced to 14 years in prison in the first year of the Trump administration. Burks (pictured above) filed multiple appeals, claiming that the virus poses a risk to his health (he contracted a mild case) that were rejected by the court. And that was that, until Biden commuted his sentence.

The Quist CEO was one of a number of major fraudsters who were liberated by Biden in his rash of pardons and commutations. While Biden had long claimed that “no one is above the law”, beginning with his corrupt pardon of his son, the outgoing president has set out to demonstrate that the law is worthless for some of the worst convicted crooks in the country.

Biden commuted the sentence of James Fry, a hedge fund manager convicted in the Petters Group $1.9 billion Ponzi scheme described as “one of the largest and most complex Ponzi schemes in U.S. history” and was accused of having “raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors” while working alongside a convicted criminal. He also commuted the sentence of Timothy McGinn, one half of a pair of brokers accused of defrauding 900 investors of $136 million, who had been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Victims included a father of two wounded veterans who had been putting aside money for their expenses.

Former CEO Eric Bloom, who got 14 years in prison after being accused of committing the “biggest fraud in Chicago court history” in what was described as a $665 million fraud scheme, also got a pass from Biden. So did former CEO Gregory J. Podlucky, who ran a bottled water company and had been accused of a $685 million pyramid fraud loan scheme in which the money was spent on jewels and toy trains, and had been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Gregory McKnight, who ran a $72 million Ponzi scheme that targeted at least 3,000 investors in every state in the country, had been sentenced to 15 years in prison before Biden stepped in.

Marc Dreier, who had been sentenced to 20 years in prison for a $740 million Ponzi scheme with losses to investors estimated at $400 million, also got a helping hand from the White House.

Biden seemed to have a soft spot for Ponzi fraudsters, and his commutations included Nevin Shapiro, sentenced to 20 years in prison for a $930 million Ponzi scheme that made headlines because of its Miami connection; Brian Callahan, sentenced to 12 years in prison for a $96 million Ponzi scheme that caused some to lose their life savings; and Joseph Reshevsky, sentenced to 22 years in prison for a $255 million Ponzi scheme that defrauded 1,200 investors.

Other 'smaller time’ fraudsters freed by Biden included Gary McDuff, sentenced to 25 years, for an $11 million investment fraud scheme, Gordon Driver, sentenced to 12 years in prison for a $17 Ponzi scheme with around 150 victims, Christopher Swartz who had been sentenced to 12 years in prison after defrauding over 150 investors out of $21 million, and Andrew Mackey, sentenced to 27 years in prison for a $12 million Ponzi scheme with 150 victims.

Biden also intervened on behalf of Henry Ramer, sentenced to 13 years in prison for defrauding over 200 investors out of over $3 million, Rodney Phelps, who had been sentenced to 9 years in prison for defrauding victims out of $2.4 million in a Ponzi scheme, Leslie John Hamilton Jr who had been sentenced to 25 years in prison for ripping off over 400 investors of $14 million in a pyramid scheme, and James Turek, sentenced to 18 years in prison for defrauding 8,500 investors out of over 18 million.

Biden also extended his hand to fellow corrupt government officials including Rita Crundwell, the former comptroller of Dixon, Illinois, who had embezzled over $53 million to fund her horse breeding business in what was described as “the largest theft of public funds in state history”, Cuyahoga County county commissioner and county Democratic Party chairman Jimmy Dimora who had been sentenced to 28 years in prison, and Judge Michael Conahan, who became notorious as the ‘kids-for-cash’ judge for a scheme that involved sending kids to prison in exchange for kickbacks. The judge’s actions have been blamed for at least one suicide.

After giving his son a blanket pardon that would potentially cover legal issues emerging from his tax problems, Biden chose to also intervene on behalf of Paul Daugerdas: a lawyer who had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for manufacturing $7 billion fake tax deductions in what was described as “the biggest tax fraud prosecution ever.”

Health care fraud was also a popular theme in Biden’s commutations including James Burkhart, a former CEO of the American Senior Communities nursing home chain who “abused his official position of trust to steal tax payer dollars intended to benefit this community’s sick, elderly and mentally challenged”,  Elaine Lovett, the owner of a medical billing company involved in a $26 Medicare fraud case, Millicent Traylor, accused of taking part in an $8.9 million Medicare fraud scheme and Babubhai Patel, who controlled 26 pharmacies in Detroit, and provided kickbacks to doctors to prescribe expensive drugs, and numerous other health care fraudsters as well.

As well as the more serious case of Dr. Meera Sachdeva, a former Mississippi oncologist who was accused of using expired and diluted chemotherapy medications and whose clinic reused needles, resulting in possible infections and deaths.

Considering the involvement of James Biden and Joe Biden’s own physician in the Americore scandal, that may be a prelude to pardons coming for Biden family members and associates.

While Biden is not the first president to pardon and commute sentences for fraudsters, both the dollar amounts and the number of victims in these cases are staggering. Due to complicated recovery processes it is difficult to estimate the total amount of losses for victims, but the total amount of money involved in these cases approaches $5 billion with over 1 million victims.

No president has ever left office bailing out individuals who did so much harm to so many.

Later investigations may determine whether, as with Bill Clinton’s Marc Rich pardon, there was a ‘pay-to-play’ element, but the sheer amount of wealth makes it unlikely that there wasn’t.

Bill Clinton’s legacy was forever scarred by the Marc Rich pardon. Biden’s legacy, already dripping with corruption, is now that of the most corrupt man to occupy the White House.

“No one is above the law,” Biden told us, before pardoning his son and executing a mass jailbreak of some of the worst financial scammers and fraudsters in the United States.

Why Trump’s free speech plan is the “MOST AMAZING” Glenn has ever heard

Donald Trump has released a video explaining his plan to "shatter the left-wing censorship regime" and it's "the most amazing thing" Glenn has heard "any president ever say." Trump promised to stop government officials from colluding with private companies to censor legal speech, clear the bureaucracy of people who had done so, push for a "digital bill of rights," reform Section 230, and do much more. Glenn and Stu discuss this long, detailed list and also review a few concerns they have, which Trump must address very carefully.

Musk, T-Mobile Team Up To Provide Victims Of Hurricane Milton Free Starlink Direct-To-Cell Service

Elon Musk attends the Men's Singles Final match between Taylor Fritz of the United States and Jannik Sinner of Italy on Day Fourteen of the 2024 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 08, 2024 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
Elon Musk attends the Men’s Singles Final match between Taylor Fritz of the United States and Jannik Sinner of Italy on Day Fourteen of the 2024 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 08, 2024 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

OAN Staff Abril Elfi
10:30 AM – Wednesday, October 9, 2024

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/musk-t-mobile-team-up-to-provide-victims-of-hurricane-milton-free-starlink-direct-to-cell-service/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

Tesla CEO and owner Elon Musk has teamed up with T-Mobile to provide Starlink’s direct-to-cell service to victims impacted by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. 

On Tuesday, Musk posted on Twitter that over 10,000 Starlink satellite kits have already been deployed to provide basic texting functionality.

“We have accelerated the rollout of Starlink directly to cell phone connectivity for areas affected by the hurricanes,” Musk wrote. “This is being provided free of charge by SpaceX and [T-Mobile] to help those in need.” 

They continued, explaining that the satellites will provide emergency alerts and texts for all phones and carriers. T-Mobile phones have already been sent a notification to let customers know that they can additionally “text loved ones” and 9-1-1.

“The FCC has also rapidly approved emergency special temporary authority for coverage in Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton,” the company said.

To identify whether a phone is connected to a Starlink satellite, SpaceX will have one to two bars of signal and show “T-Mobile SpaceX” in the network name.

“Users may have to manually retry text messages if they don’t go through at first, as this is being delivered on a best-effort basis,” SpaceX also wrote on X. “The service works best outdoors, and occasionally works indoors near a window.”

On Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued a warning regarding Hurricane Milton, which is expected to make landfall later in the day. 

“A large area of destructive storm surge, with highest inundations of 10 feet or greater, is expected along a portion of the west-central coast of the Florida Peninsula,” they said.

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