The last time I was in Panama I shopped for a Panama Hat.

It was to be a joke/gift for a friend of mine who was an admirer of 1930-ish movie stars like Clark Gable and modern stars like Brad Pitt and other celebrities who all wore fashionable Panama Hats.

When I got to the hat shop in Panama City the joke was on me. All the spiffy white Panama Hats on sale were not made in Panama at all, or even in nearby Ecuardor, the hat’s birthplace.

They were, like everything else, made in China. Bummer.

That negative outcome later doused my second idea which was to suggest that President-elect Donald Trump don a Panama Hat the next time he talks about taking the Panama Canal back from the Panamanians, or the Chinese, or whoever is running it.

It would give him the old Sean Connery or Robert Redford look.

Then it dawned on me that Trump would, God forbid, rather be caught dead ordering Chinese takeout before wearing a Panama Hat, let alone one made in China.

But that does not mean he is joking when he talks about restoring the Panama Canal, which was financed, built, and once operated by the U.S., to U.S. control.

Creation of the canal was heartily supported by President Theodore Roosevelt after the U.S. took the project over in 1904 following a failed French effort to build it.

Roosevelt was a president who knew how to get his way.  “Speak softly and carry a gig stick,” was a phrase he used. Trump changed the phrase to “Speak loudly and carry a big stick.”

The U.S. created the state of Panama. The territory was controlled by Columbia, but a U.S. supported revolt wrested control of the territory away from Columbia and established Panama in 1903.  The U.S. a year later signed a treaty with the new country of Panama that paved the way for construction of the canal.

To emphasize the canal’s importance to  U.S. defense, its Navy and shipping in general, Roosevelt, wearing a Panama Hat, visited the site in 1906.

After its completion in 1914 the canal was under U.S. control until it was handed over to Panama by budding globalist President Jimmy Carter in 1977.

It remained under joint American/Panamanian authority until 1999 when Panama took over complete control.

However, recent Chinese intrusions into South American countries as well as in Panama have caught Trump’s attention. China’s influence in Panama has grown ever since Panama agreed not to maintain any ties with Taiwan, a democracy that China claims it owns.

Since then Chinese investments in the region and the canal have soared. Panama became the first Latin American country to sign onto China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

A Hong Kong based company, with Chinese backing, operates ports on both ends of the canal, which gives China a significant role in the region’s logistics. A Chinese construction company is building a $1.4 billion bridge over the canal, and there is more.

It should not be forgotten that the U.S. has intervened in Panama before. Under Republican President George H.W. Bush the U.S. invaded Panama, a center for drug trafficking, in December 1989 to overthrow Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, a major drug dealer and money launderer.

The invasion—Operation Just Cause—came a day after a U.S. Marine was shot to death at a Panamanian army check point. Nine thousand U.S. troops joined 12,000 U.S. military personnel already in Panama to face off with Noriega’s Panamanian Defense Force.

The operation lasted a week, costing the lives of 23 U.S. soldiers and the lives of some 150 PDF soldiers. Noriega was captured, deposed and put on trial. He was found guilty and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He died in a Panama City Hospital in 2017.

“We will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States,” Trump said in Arizona. “So, to the officials of Panama, please be guided accordingly.”

Then over the weekend Trump wished a Merry Christmas “ to the wonderful soldiers of China who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal.”

Trump is a bull in a China shop.

Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com.

A cargo ship traverses the Agua Clara Locks of the Panama Canal in Colon, Panama, in September of this year. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)

Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)