I suspect he is moving towards buying the canal. He will control it as the owner. This seems to be his *modus operandi*, bash them over the head until they sell. I noticed that he did the same thing to Colombia. The threatened bashing was too much to bear for the Colombians.

Exactly. If it's a priority to the regime to openly control the Panama Canal, rather than de facto control it, then they will take control over it. I do think Trump has a strong preference for doing it through negotiation (including threats of violence, unfortunately), rather than taking it by force.

Undisciplined

Trump's corollary to the Monroe Doctrine seems to still be in the formative stages. He has already put Colombia in its place over repatriation problems and I think that he will probably make Panama return or buy back the Canal Zone for security reasons. Security reasons may be a preeminent policy making device for both Trump and Rubio. We can only hope that they use money rather than barefaced coercion.