“ Canada is a sovereign state, yes ,” Pete Hoekstra told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He’s a former congressman who served as U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands in President Donald Trump ’s first term.

Potential plans range from partnering more closely with Panamanian security forces to a less likely option of U.S. troops' seizing the canal by force, U.S. officials told NBC News.

President Donald Trump reportedly instructed the U.S. military to draw up plans to increase U.S. troop presence in the Panama