Among the many distortions, inventions and outright lies in Trump’s inaugural address, this one stands out for its combination of national chauvinism, murderous threats, distortions and outright lies:

President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent—he was a natural businessman—and gave Teddy Roosevelt the money for many of the great things he did, including the Panama Canal, which has foolishly been given to the country of Panama after the United Spates—the United States—I mean, think of this—spent more money than ever spent on a project before and lost 38,000 lives in the building of the Panama Canal.
We have been treated very badly from this foolish gift that should have never been made, and Panama’s promise to us has been broken.
The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated. American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape, or form. And that includes the United States Navy.
And above all, China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back. (Applause.) [transcript from WhiteHouse.gov] (emphasis added)

Panama: Protestors burn U.S. flag January 20, 2025, outraged at Trumps threats to take over the Panama Canal
Besides the blatant reassertion of the "whiteness" of America by once again erasing the indigenous name for Mt. Denali, Trump leaves out that McKinley started a war with Spain in 1898 on totally false pretenses and proceeded to seize Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, which had been Spanish colonies. The U.S. war to subjugate the Filipino people who fought for independence in the 1890s and early 1900s took the lives of 200,000 civilians and thousands of fighters for self-determination. Puerto Rico and Guam remain U.S. colonies to this day. In 1903, McKinley’s successor, Teddy Roosevelt, sent troops and warships to Panama, which was then part of Colombia, to back forces who wanted to secede from Colombia. The U.S. then quickly signed a treaty with the new Panamanian government to build the canal across that country. In other words—and in real life—another case of manipulation and mass murder in the service of the “good ole USA.” (As for the rest of this typically whiny and lying part of his speech, China is not operating the Canal, and America is not being overcharged.)
But let’s focus on that last phrase in particular: “we’re taking it back.” This is a bald-faced threat against a sovereign government right in the middle of Trump’s very big speech. And one lie in particular is set up to "justify" it—the supposed “38,000 Americans” who Trump claims died building the canal.

Most workers in the building of the Panama Canal came from the West Indies, especially Barbados. Photo: Library of Congress
In fact, thousands of people did die—more than 25,000—when the French first attempted to build a canal in Panama in 1881-1889. Most of those who died, however, were Jamaicans. And how many died when the U.S. built the canal from 1904 to 1914? Nearly, 6,000—the vast majority of whom were from Barbados!1 The number of Americans who died numbered less than 300 (less than 1 percent of 38,000 that Trump claimed had died).2
The ridiculously exaggerated figure of “38,000 Americans”—and the erasure of the vastly greater number of Jamaicans and Barbadians who labored in murderous conditions before dying—feeds red meat to his audience, who already believe that the most oppressive power on earth (America) is somehow getting pushed around. This is designed to justify to these MAGA followers and to others the naked imperialist threat Trump makes: “we’re taking it back.”
_______________
FOOTNOTES:
1. Between 1904 and 1916, over 45,000 people from Barbados went to Panama to work on the Canal—about a quarter of the whole population of Barbados, then a British colony where the descendants of African slaves were brutally oppressed and exploited. Georgia State University history professor Lia T. Bascomb wrote about these workers on the Panama Canal from Barbados:
The earliest generation of migrants did the hardest work, literally digging out the space for large boats to cross the fifty miles between the coasts. Deaths from industrial accidents, falls from scaffolding, and disease were common. Throughout the building of the canal and for decades after its completion, these migrants and their descendants worked on an unequal pay scale, where mostly white U.S. citizens were paid on the "gold roll," and the mostly Black, mostly West Indian migrants were paid on the "silver roll." The distinctions began a form of segregation within the Canal Zone that permeated clubs, schools, and housing as well as pay. [back]
2. Most of the deaths resulted from a terrible disease called “yellow fever.” Guess what finally brought it under control? A vaccine that was developed in the 1930s by the scientist Max Theiler—a very inconvenient truth for Trump’s anti-vaxer nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. [back]