The White House has asked the United States military to draw up plans for how it might seize the Panama Canal “by force,” a bombshell report revealed Thursday. The alleged directive comes a week after President Donald Trump told lawmakers in his joint address to Congress he would be “reclaiming” the vital waterway to “further enhance our national security.

President Donald Trump has said repeatedly he wants to "take back" the Panama Canal, which is located at the narrowest part of the isthmus between North and South America and is considered one of the world's most strategically important waterways,