--- 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: 2026-04-13T07:44:39.991Z 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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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jun 20, 2017 12:39 PM UTC  President Donald Trump meets with Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela in the Oval Office, with first lady Melania Trump, at the White House on June 19, 2017 in Washington, DC. According to the White House, the two presidents will talk about how to curb "transnational organized crime, illegal migration, and illicit substances" and the continued political and economic instability in Venezuela. President Donald Trump meets with Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela in the Oval Office, with first lady Melania Trump, at the White House on June 19, 2017 in Washington, DC. According to the White House, the two presidents will talk about how to curb "transnational organized crime, illegal migration, and illicit substances" and the continued political and economic instability in Venezuela. Molly Riley—Pool—Getty Images 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). ```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":"2026-04-13T07:44:39.991Z","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"}}]}] ```