Trump threatens to push the world back to the age of empires

Just hours after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was removed from his palace, his job and his country by U.S. special forces, Donald Trump was still marveling at what it was like to monitor the attack live from his Mar-a-Lago resort.

He shared his feelings with Fox News.

“If you could see the speed and violence, that’s what they’d say…these guys did an amazing job. No one could do anything like this.”

The President of the United States wants and needs a quick victory. Before taking office for the second time, he boasted that it would only take one day to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

As Trump’s statements present it, Venezuela is the quick, decisive victory he craves.

Maduro is locked up in a Brooklyn jail cell and the United States will “run” Venezuela – he declares that the Chavista regime, now with a new president, will hand over millions of barrels of oil and that he will control how the profits are spent. In any case, no Americans have been killed so far, nor has the long-term occupation since the 2003 invasion of Iraq been so disastrous.

For now, at least, Trump and his advisers, at least publicly, are ignoring Venezuela’s complexities. It’s a country larger than Germany and still ruled by a factional regime that has integrated corruption and repression into Venezuelan politics.

Instead, Trump is enjoying a geopolitical sugar rush. Judging from statements made by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and War Secretary Pete Hegers when they supported him at Mar-a-Lago, they did too.

Since then, they have repeatedly reiterated that Trump is a president who walks the talk.

He has made clear to Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, Greenland and Denmark that they need to be nervous about where his appetite will go next.

Trump loves nicknames. He still calls his predecessor “Sleepy Joe Biden.”

Now he is trying to come up with a new name for the “Monroe Doctrine,” which has been the foundation of U.S. policy in Latin America for two centuries.

Naturally, Trump renamed it “Donroism” after himself.

James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States, published the original version in December 1823. It declared the Western Hemisphere to be America’s sphere of interest—and warned European powers not to interfere or establish new colonies.

Donroism reinforced Monroe’s message from 200 years ago.

“The Monroe Doctrine was a big thing, but we’ve replaced it a lot,” Trump said at Mar-a-Lago as Maduro, blindfolded and shackled, was on his way to prison.

“Under our new national security strategy, America’s dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never again be questioned.”

Any competitor or potential threat, especially China, must stay away from Latin America. It is unclear what will happen to the huge investments China has already made in the region.

Donlow also extends the vast area the United States calls its “backyard” as far north as Greenland.

In 2026, the State Department posted a photo of Trump on social media with a handwriting comparable to Monroe’s copperplate, showing Trump frowning and looking moody. It read: “This is our hemisphere – President Trump will not allow our security to be compromised.”

That means using America’s military and economic might to coerce unruly countries and leaders—and, if necessary, seize their resources. As Trump warned another possible target — the president of Colombia — they need to be careful.

Greenland is on the U.S. radar not only because of its strategic importance in the Arctic but also because of its rich mineral resources, which are becoming increasingly easier to mine as climate change melts the ice caps. Greenland’s rare earths and Venezuela’s heavy crude oil are both considered strategic assets for the United States.

Unlike other interventionist U.S. presidents, Trump does not cloak his actions with the legitimacy (however false) of international law or the pursuit of democracy. The only legitimacy he needs comes from his belief in the power of his will, backed up by the raw power of America.

From Monroe to Don Rowe, foreign policy doctrines were important to American presidents. They shape their actions and legacies.

In July, the United States will celebrate its 250th birthday. In 1796, America’s first president, George Washington, announced that he would not seek a third term in a farewell address that still resonates today.

Washington issued a series of warnings to the United States and the world.

Temporary wartime alliances may be necessary, but the United States should avoid permanent alliances with foreign countries. This started a tradition of isolationism.

At home, he warned citizens against extreme partisanship. He said secession was a danger to the young American republic.

The Senate’s annual public rereading of Washington’s Farewell Address does nothing to eradicate America’s hyperpartisan and polarizing politics.

Washington’s warnings about the dangers of entangled alliances were followed for 150 years. After World War I, the United States left Europe and returned to isolationism.

But World War II made the United States a global power. This is where another doctrine comes in, one that was even more central to the European way of life — until Trump was elected.

By 1947, the Cold War with the Soviet Union had become cold. Britain, bankrupted by the war, told the United States that it could no longer finance the Greek government’s fight against the Communists.

Then-President Harry Truman responded by pledging, in his words, the United States’ support for “free peoples resisting attempts at conquest by armed minorities or external pressure.” He was referring to threats from the Soviet Union or local communists.

This is the Truman Doctrine. It led to the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, followed by the creation of NATO in 1949. America’s Atlanticists, such as Harry Truman and diplomat George Kennan, who developed the idea of ​​containing the Soviet Union, believed these commitments were in America’s interests.

There is a direct link between the Truman Doctrine and Joe Biden’s decision to fund the war in Ukraine.

In many ways, the Truman Doctrine created the relationship with Europe that Trump has been destroying. This is a radical break with the past. Truman ignored Washington’s warnings about permanently entangling the Union.

Now Trump is breaking with Truman’s legacy. If he makes good on his threat to somehow occupy Greenland, a sovereign Danish territory, he could destroy what’s left of the transatlantic alliance.

Maga theorist and powerful Trump adviser Stephen Miller summed it up on CNN earlier this week. He said that the United States is operating in the real world, “ruled by strength, ruled by force, ruled by power… These are the iron laws of the world since ancient times.”

No American president would deny the necessity of strength and power. But from Franklin D. Roosevelt, through Truman and all his successors, to Trump, those in the Oval Office believe that the best way to stay strong is to lead a coalition, and that means give and take.

They supported the new United Nations and efforts to create rules to regulate state behavior. Of course, the United States has repeatedly ignored and violated international law—actions that have significantly undermined the idea of ​​a rules-based international order.

But Trump’s predecessors did not seek to dispel the notion that the international system, however flawed and incomplete, needs regulation.

This is because the rule of the strongest in the first half of the 20th century had catastrophic consequences – two world wars and millions of deaths.

But Trump’s “America First” ideology combined with his businessman’s greed and transactional instincts have led him to believe that America’s allies need to pay a price for his favor. Friendship seems too strong a word. Under the narrow definition proposed by the president, U.S. interests require it to stay ahead by acting alone.

Trump changes his mind frequently. But he remained convinced that the United States could use its power with impunity. He said this was the way to make America great again.

The risk is that if Trump insists on his course, he will push the world back to the age of empires a century or more ago—a world where great powers with spheres of influence sought to impose their will and powerful authoritarian nationalists led their peoples toward disaster.