PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announces plans to partially reopen the “Jungle School” in Panama, a former U.S. jungle warfare training site in the Panama Canal Zone, dormant since 1999.
👥 Who’s Involved: Pete Hegseth, U.S. troops in Panama, President Donald J. Trump.
📍 Where & When: Panama, during Hegseth’s trip for the Central American Security Conference (CENTSEC), April 8, 2025.
💬 Key Quote: “I should never put you in a fair fight. My job is to put you in a fight where you are overwhelming.” – Pete Hegseth
⚠️ Impact: Signals a U.S. military push to revive jungle training and reassert influence over the Panama Canal Zone, once American territory.
IN FULL:
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has said he intends to partially reopen the “Jungle School,” where up to 9,000 troops a year trained in jungle warfare from the 1950s to 1999 in the former Panama Canal Zone. Secretary Hegseth made the announcement to U.S. troops in Panama amid an ongoing trip to the Central American country, where he will attend the Central American Security Conference (CENTSEC).
Thanking the troops for their service, Hegseth said, “We will have your back; President Trump has asked me to share that with all the groups of troops I talk to,” stressing the importance of the military’s “warrior ethos” to the administration and its determination to rebuild the military.
“I should never put you in a fair fight. My job is to put you in a fight where you are overwhelming… First of all, hopefully, deterring the enemy, [but] if it comes to conflict, overwhelmingly closing with and destroying the enemy,” said Hegseth, himself a decorated former infantry officer.
The Defense Secretary is joined on his Panama trip by Raheem Kassam, Editor-in-Chief of The National Pulse, providing exclusive coverage and commentary to Pulse+ members as the trip unfolds.
The Panama Canal Zone was under U.S. sovereignty in perpetuity until its surrender to Panama in 1979 under the late Democratic President Jimmy Carter. The canal was largely American-built and funded, and incumbent President Donald J. Trump has expressed a desire to regain control over it, lamenting its handover as one of his predecessors’ worst-ever deals.
“The purpose of our deal [with Panama] and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated,” he said during his inaugural address, noting Chinese involvement in the canal now and vowing, “We’re taking it back.”
NOW: @SecDef @PeteHegseth addresses U.S. troops at the Pier on the Panama Canal, tells them that he intends to reopen parts of the JOTC aka “Jungle school” which closed in 1999. pic.twitter.com/SnOCv09Qzz
— Raheem. (@RaheemKassam) April 8, 2025