World leaders rolled their eyes when President Trump kicked off his second term by threatening to take back the Panama Canal. Yet within weeks a massive sale put the waterway’s biggest ports and dozens of others in American hands—reshaping the global shipping business.

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, last week said it was leading a consortium that would pay $22.8 billion to buy more than 40 ports around the world, including crucial berths on either end of the Panama Canal, from Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison, controlled by one of Asia’s richest men.