Panama on Thursday rejected a claim by the Trump administration that it dropped fees for U.S. government vessels passing through the canal, and its president, Jose Raul Mulino, accused the White House of peddling a "quite simply intolerable falsehood."

"In response to a publication released by the United States Department of State, the Panama Canal Authority, which is authorized to set tolls and other fees for transiting the Canal, reports that it has not made any adjustments to them," the Panama Canal Authority, an autonomous agency overseen by the Panamanian government, said in a statement posted to its X account.

The State Department on Wednesday said in a post on X: "U.S. government vessels can now transit the Panama Canal without charge fees, saving the U.S. government millions of dollars a year," to which Mulino replied: "I am extremely surprised by yesterday's state department announcement because they are making important statements ... based on a falsehood, and this is intolerable, quite simply intolerable."

President Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced his desire to retake control of the waterway, which cuts across the Central American nation and is the main link between the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has visited Latin American countries this week, demanded that Panama make "immediate changes" to the "influence and control" of China over the canal.

Rubio said Thursday that he was "not confused" about the status of the canal agreement and understood that Panama has to follow a legal process to eliminate the fees. "They're a democratically elected government. They have rules. They have laws. They're going to follow their process," he said.

Given that the U.S. has a treaty obligation to protect the canal, Rubio said, "I find it absurd that we would have to pay fees to transit a zone that we are obligated to protect in a time of conflict."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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