Foreign policy ambitions are shaping Donald Trump's second presidential term.
US President Donald Trump's second term is being shaped by his foreign policy ambitions. The Republican made good on his threats to Venezuela by seizing its president and his wife from their heavily fortified compound in Caracas in a dramatic overnight raid. In the eyes of analysts, he is restoring the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 and promises of US supremacy in the Western Hemisphere. The BBC lists some of the warnings he has issued to other countries that appear to be Washington's target:
Greenland
-The US already has a military base in Greenland, the Pituffik Spaceport, but Trump seems to want the entire large Arctic island, which is actually part of the Danish kingdom. “We need Greenland from a national security perspective,” he told reporters, adding that the region, rich in rare earth minerals, was “covered everywhere with Russian and Chinese ships.”
Colombia
Just hours after the operation in Venezuela, Trump warned Colombian President Gustavo Petro to “watch out.” Colombia is known as a key hub for the regional drug trade — especially cocaine — but Venezuela’s western neighbor also has large oil reserves and is a major producer of gold, silver, emeralds, platinum and coal. Historically, Colombia has been a close ally of Washington in the war on drugs, receiving hundreds of millions of dollars each year in military aid to fight the cartels.
Iran
Although it is outside the Donroe Doctrine, Iran is currently facing massive anti-government protests, and Trump recently warned that authorities there would be “hit very hard” if more innocent protesters were killed. “We’re watching it closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to be hit very hard by the United States,” he told reporters on Air Force One.
Mexico
Since first taking office in 2016, Trump has been calling for a “wall” along the southern border with Mexico. On his first day back in office in 2025, he signed an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico “Gulf of America.” He has often claimed that Mexican authorities are not doing enough to stem the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants into the United States, and his threats against the neighboring country have been blunt.
Cuba
The island nation, just 90 miles from Florida, has been under U.S. sanctions since the early 1960s. It had close ties with Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuela, which reportedly guaranteed about 30 percent of Cuba’s oil in exchange for doctors and health workers. With Maduro gone, Havana could face serious difficulties if oil supplies are cut off. Trump suggested on Sunday that U.S. military intervention there might not be necessary because Cuba, he said, is ready to collapse on its own.
