--- title: Trump Panama Canal Comment Goes Viral With Internet Reactions description: The Internet can't stop joking about President Donald Trump's comment about the Panama Canal. canonical: https://time.com/4824806/trump-panama-canal-internet-reactions/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-20T12:39:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:19:13.107Z og:title: The Internet Can't Stop Laughing at Trump's Panama Canal Comment og:description: People are riding the wave of Trump's comment about the panama canal og:url: https://time.com/4824806/trump-panama-canal-internet-reactions/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt921e54178b033a66/6988d260ab6d77eaa06aea30/gettyimages-697750720.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: President Trump Hosts Panamanian President Varela At The White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Internet Can't Stop Laughing at Trump's Panama Canal Comment twitter:description: People are riding the wave of Trump's comment about the panama canal twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt921e54178b033a66/6988d260ab6d77eaa06aea30/gettyimages-697750720.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Internet Can't Get Over President Trump's Panama Canal Comment > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=0ebd93dd-76c1-41fd-9282-d75826e175da&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Internet Can't Get Over President Trump's Panama Canal Comment [Watch (HLS stream): The Internet Can't Get Over President Trump's Panama Canal Comment](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/FTWvdXN6.m3u8) (0:50)  _Published 2017-06-20. President Donald Trump hosted the President of Panama Juan Carlos Varela at the White House Monday, and one exchange between the heads of state has lit up the internet_ by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jun 20, 2017 12:39 PM UTC President Donald Trump hosted the President of Panama Juan Carlos Varela at the White House Monday, and one exchange between the heads of state has lit up the internet by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jun 20, 2017 12:39 PM UTC [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4750178/trump-pavarotti-great-friend-reactions/) hosted the [President of Panama Juan Carlos Varela](http://time.com/4815921/panama-china-taiwan-beijing-diplomacy/) at the White House Monday, and one exchange between the heads of state has [lit up the internet](http://time.com/4777213/donald-trump-few-exceptions/). “The Panama Canal is doing quite well,” Trump said as the cameras flashed while he was seated beside Varela. “I think we did a good job building it, right?” It was part of Trump’s opener, according to a [White House release](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/06/19/remarks-president-trump-and-president-juan-carlos-varela-panama-during). “Yeah. One hundred years ago,” Varela responded. Trump added: “We did a very good job.” Even though Trump’s “we” certainly could have been about his pride in U.S. history, and although it’s not clear that he was stating that the Panama canal was recently constructed, the Internet was quick to spring to action. Jokes about history class and other legendary historic figures no longer with us? Twitter had those in boatloads. The U.S. cut the 50-mile ribbon of water linking the Atlantic to the Pacific across the Central American country, and it opened in 1914\. It was [expanded in 2015](http://time.com/3858370/the-panama-canal-gets-grander/). See below for the reactions to the exchange. > [](https://twitter.com/thegayzebragirl/status/877132782451003393) > [](https://twitter.com/Saturniablue/status/877131776094748674) > [](https://twitter.com/thistallawkgirl/status/876862766795161600) > [](https://twitter.com/JohnFugelsang/status/876831662595743744) > [](https://twitter.com/tannenbaumr/status/876840006807060480) > [](https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/876835348797698048) > [](https://twitter.com/RealDonalDrumpf/status/876854590955823105) > [](https://twitter.com/marrynman/status/876831106401804288) Even Seth Meyers sunk his teeth into the moment on [_Late Night with Seth Meyers_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ApHMEeXEjc). ## Transcript It's our great honor to have President and Mrs. Varela from Panama. We have many things to discuss. We're gonna spend quite a bit of time today. Panama Canal is doing quite well. I think we did a good job building it, right? 100 years ago. We did a very good job, but things are going well in Panama. The relationship has been very strong, we are developing new things to do and only getting stronger. And also our friendship with the president is very, very good. So I just wanna thank you very much and it's an honor to have you at the White House. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. President- You wanna say something? I would like I would like to thank President Trump and his wife for receiving us today at the White House. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4824806/trump-panama-canal-internet-reactions/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4824806/trump-panama-canal-internet-reactions/"},"headline":"The Internet Can't Get Over President Trump's Panama Canal Comment","datePublished":"2017-06-20T12:39:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T09:19:13.107Z","description":"“I think we did a good job building it, right?”","url":"https://time.com/4824806/trump-panama-canal-internet-reactions/","keywords":["Newsfeed","politics","Comedy","viral","Panama","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt921e54178b033a66/6988d260ab6d77eaa06aea30/gettyimages-697750720.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt921e54178b033a66/6988d260ab6d77eaa06aea30/gettyimages-697750720.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Hosts Panamanian President Varela At The White House","caption":"President Trump Hosts Panamanian President Varela At The White House","creditText":"Molly Riley—Pool—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4824806/trump-panama-canal-internet-reactions/","name":"The Internet Can't Get Over President Trump's Panama Canal Comment"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Internet Can't Get Over President Trump's Panama Canal Comment","description":"President Donald Trump hosted the President of Panama Juan Carlos Varela at the White House Monday, and one exchange between the heads of state has lit up the internet","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/FTWvdXN6/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-06-20T13:14:20.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/FTWvdXN6.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4824806/trump-panama-canal-internet-reactions/","duration":"PT50S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4824806/trump-panama-canal-internet-reactions/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```