After the U.S. raid that captured Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and brought him to face federal drug trafficking charges, President Donald Trump used his remarks to broaden the message beyond the operation itself, according to the Associated Press. Trump said “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere,” as declared following Maduro’s capture, “will never be questioned again,” and he framed the episode as a signal to neighbors about how the U.S. intends to act in the region.
Trump also told neighbors to “get in line” or face consequences, the AP reported, and he pointed to Maduro’s capture as justification for continued pressure. In the aftermath, the president directed remarks at several countries and leaders, including Greenland and Mexico, as he pushed for a tougher stance on drug cartels and renewed earlier comments about U.S. control of the Danish territory.
The AP reported that Trump’s rhetoric also reflected a style associated with U.S. expansion in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, citing comparisons to Theodore Roosevelt and an era when American presidents deployed the military for territorial and resource conquests. Historian Edward Frantz of the University of Indianapolis said Trump’s language was a notable departure from more familiar U.S. justifications used during other periods of intervention, saying, “There’s been periods, Vietnam and Iraq, which have evoked questions about a return to American imperialism, but the U.S. leaders’ messages in those periods were cloaked in talk of democracy. The way Trump is talking about it is something we haven’t seen in a very long time.”
Trump’s comments have also extended to Cuba and Colombia, the AP said. Trump warned that Cuba was “going down,” while also raising his tone about Colombia—described by the AP as the “epicenter of global cocaine production”—when he told reporters that a military operation there “sounds good to me.”
In addition, the AP reported that Trump said the administration would “run” Venezuela policy and that he threatened interim President Delcy Rodríguez with an outcome worse than Maduro’s if she did not “do what’s right.” The AP said Trump also anticipated that Venezuelan oil would open to U.S. energy companies, adding that he expected large U.S. oil companies would go in, spend billions, repair infrastructure, and “start making money for the country.”
The AP said the fallout has divided Latin America, with Trump-aligned leaders mostly applauding the ouster while non-aligned leaders condemned the operation on sovereignty grounds. The remarks also sharpened concerns that Trump might pursue other territorial ambitions, including annexing Greenland, which Denmark’s prime minister directly linked to NATO’s future.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned Monday that Trump would “mark the undoing” of the NATO alliance if he tried to carry out his assertion that the U.S. “absolutely” needs to take over Greenland for national security reasons. Frederiksen said, “If the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops,” in remarks to Danish broadcaster TV2, according to the AP.
The Associated Press reported that Trump has leaned on the Monroe Doctrine to justify intervention in Venezuela and threaten action across the hemisphere in the name of protecting the safety and welfare of Americans. In parallel, Rubio told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that, “This is the Western Hemisphere,” adding, “This is where we live — and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors and rivals of the United States.”
At the United Nations, the AP reported that Colombia’s ambassador, Leonor Zalabata Torres, said an emergency Security Council meeting that the raid resembled “the worst interference in our area in the past.” Zalabata Torres said, “Democracy cannot be defended or promoted through violence and coercion, and it cannot be superseded, either, by economic interests,” the AP reported, noting that Colombia requested the meeting.
The AP also reported U.N. and U.S. political responses tied the episode to broader international security concerns. Senator Angus King said on CNN that Trump’s actions “essentially” gave Putin and Xi Jinping a “hall pass,” while Russian officials condemned the raid; Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, the AP reported, said the U.N. body “cannot allow the United States to proclaim itself as some kind of a supreme judge” to the world.
The Associated Press reported its United Nations coverage also included contributions from writers Jennifer Peltz and Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations.