“`html
Just hours after U.S. special forces reportedly removed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power, President Donald Trump reportedly expressed his awe at monitoring the raid’s live feed from his Mar-a-Lago estate.
He reportedly shared his sentiments with Fox News.
“If you could see the speed, the violence, they call it that… It was amazing, amazing work by these people. No one else could do something like this,” he reportedly said.
The U.S. president seemingly desires swift victories. Prior to his purported second term, he boasted that resolving the Russia-Ukraine war would be a single day’s undertaking.
Venezuela, as framed in Trump’s reported statements, represents the quick, decisive victory he has allegedly sought.
Maduro is reportedly incarcerated in Brooklyn, the U.S. will purportedly “run” Venezuela, and he has allegedly announced that the Chavista regime, now under a new president, will yield millions of barrels of oil, with him controlling the allocation of profits. All of this, at least thus far, without American casualties or the protracted occupation that followed the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
For the time being, at least publicly, Trump and his advisors are seemingly disregarding Venezuela’s complexities. It’s a country larger than Germany, still purportedly governed by a regime of factions deeply entrenched in corruption and repression.
Instead, Trump is reportedly reveling in a geopolitical high. Judging by their alleged statements while flanking him at Mar-a-Lago, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth are as well.
Since then, they have reportedly reiterated that Trump is a president who delivers on his promises.
He’s seemingly signaled to Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, Greenland – and Denmark – that they should be wary of his next target.
Trump reportedly favors nicknames, continuing to refer to his predecessor as Sleepy Joe Biden.
He’s now allegedly introducing a new moniker for the Monroe Doctrine, a cornerstone of U.S. policy in Latin America for two centuries.
Trump has reportedly renamed it, naturally, after himself – the Donroe Doctrine.
James Monroe, the fifth U.S. president, unveiled the original in December 1823, declaring the Western Hemisphere as America’s sphere of influence and cautioning European powers against interference or establishing new colonies.
The Donroe Doctrine purportedly amplifies Monroe’s 200-year-old message.
“The Monroe Doctrine is a big deal, but we’ve superseded it by a lot,” Trump reportedly said at Mar-a-Lago as Maduro, blindfolded and shackled, was en route to jail.
“Under our new national security strategy, American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.”
Any rival or potential threat, particularly China, must reportedly stay out of Latin America, seemingly disregarding China’s substantial existing investments in the region.
Donroe also extends the area the U.S. considers its “backyard” north to Greenland.
The 2026 equivalent of Monroe’s copperplate handwriting is a photograph of a frowning, moody Trump posted by the U.S. State Department on social media, accompanied by the words, “This is OUR hemisphere – and President Trump will not allow our security to be threatened.”
This reportedly implies using U.S. military and economic power to coerce countries and leaders that deviate from the line – and to seize their resources if necessary. Trump reportedly warned another potential target, the president of Colombia, to “watch their ass.”
Greenland is reportedly in America’s sights, not only for its strategic importance in the Arctic, but also for its rich mineral resources becoming accessible due to climate change melting the ice sheets. Rare earths from Greenland and heavy crude oil from Venezuela are both viewed as strategic U.S. assets.
Unlike other interventionist U.S. presidents, Trump purportedly doesn’t conceal his actions with the veneer of international law or the pursuit of democracy. His sole justification reportedly stems from his belief in the force of his will, backed by raw U.S. power.
From Monroe to Donroe, foreign policy doctrines reportedly matter to U.S. presidents, shaping their actions and legacies.
In July, the U.S. will commemorate its 250th anniversary. In 1796, its first president, George Washington, announced his decision not to seek a third term with a farewell address that continues to resonate.
Washington reportedly issued a series of warnings about the U.S. and the world.
Temporary alliances during wartime might be necessary, but the U.S. should otherwise avoid permanent alliances with foreign nations, initiating the tradition of isolationism.
Domestically, he cautioned citizens against extreme partisanship, warning that division posed a threat to the young American republic.
The Senate conducts an annual public reading of Washington’s farewell address, a ritual that does not penetrate the hyper-partisan and polarized political climate of the U.S.
Washington’s warning regarding the perils of entangling alliances was reportedly heeded for 150 years. Following World War One, the U.S. withdrew from Europe and reverted to isolationism.
However, World War Two transformed the U.S. into a global power, introducing another doctrine that profoundly impacted the lives of Europeans – until Trump’s presidency.
By 1947, the Cold War with the Soviet Union had intensified. The UK, bankrupted by the war, informed the U.S. that it could no longer finance the Greek government’s struggle against communists.
Then-President Harry Truman responded by committing the U.S. to supporting, in his words, “free peoples resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures,” referring to threats from the Soviet Union or domestic communists.
This was the Truman Doctrine, which led to the Marshall Plan, rebuilding Europe, followed by the creation of NATO in 1949. Atlanticists in the U.S., such as Harry Truman and George Kennan, the diplomat who conceived the idea of containing the Soviet Union, believed these commitments served America’s interests.
A direct line connects the Truman Doctrine to Joe Biden’s decision to fund Ukraine’s war effort.
In many respects, the Truman Doctrine established the relationship with Europe that Trump has been dismantling. It was a stark departure from the past, as Truman disregarded Washington’s warning against permanent entangling alliances.
Now, Trump is reportedly breaking with Truman’s legacy. If he proceeds with his threat to somehow seize Greenland, which is Danish sovereign territory, he could jeopardize what remains of the transatlantic alliance.
Maga ideologue and influential Trump advisor Stephen Miller articulated this earlier this week on CNN, stating that the U.S. operates in a real world “governed by strength, by force, by power… these are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.”
No U.S. president would deny the necessity of strength and power. However, from Franklin D. Roosevelt, through Truman, and all their successors until Trump, the occupants of the Oval Office believed the most effective way to wield power was to lead an alliance, which entailed compromise.
They supported the nascent United Nations and the effort to establish rules governing the behavior of states. The U.S., of course, has disregarded and violated international law numerous times, significantly undermining the concept of a rules-based international order.
Yet, Trump’s predecessors did not attempt to abolish the notion that the international system required regulation, however flawed and incomplete.
This stems from the catastrophic consequences of the rule of the strongest in the first half of the 20th century – two world wars and millions of fatalities.
However, the combination of Trump’s “America First” ideology and his businessman’s acquisitive, transactional instincts has led him to believe that America’s allies should pay for the privilege of his favor. Friendship seems an inadequate descriptor. America’s interests, narrowly defined by the president, necessitate maintaining its dominant position by acting unilaterally.
Trump often changes his mind. However, one constant appears to be his belief that the U.S. can exercise its power with impunity, asserting that it is the path to making America great again.
The risk is that, if Trump adheres to his course, he will revert the world to the era of empires a century or more ago – a world in which major powers with spheres of influence sought to impose their will, and in which mighty authoritarian nationalists led their peoples to ruin.
The US, which recently captured its President Nicolás Maduro, has long demanded the detainees be freed.
Community members have rallied at a makeshift memorial for Renee Good, a day after she was fatally shot by a US immigration agent.
French researcher Laurent Vinatier was freed by Moscow in exchange for Russian basketball player Daniil Kasatkin.
The incident is threatening to inflame a deeply contentious debate over immigration enforcement.
How much attention did you pay to what happened in the world over the past seven days?
“`