US President Donald Trump’s second term is being shaped by his foreign policy ambitions.
He’s followed through on threats against Venezuela by capturing its president and his wife from their heavily fortified Caracas compound in a dramatic overnight raid.
When describing the operation, Trump dusted off the 1823 Monroe Doctrine and its promise of US supremacy in the western hemisphere – re-branding it the “Donroe Doctrine”.
Here are some of the warnings he’s made against other nations in Washington’s orbit in recent days.
Greenland
The US already has a military base on Greenland – Pituffik Space Base – but Trump wants the whole island.
“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security”, he told journalists, saying the region was “covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.”
The vast Arctic island, part of the Kingdom of Denmark, sits roughly 2,000 miles (3,200 km) to the north-east of the US.
It’s rich in rare earth minerals, which are crucial for the production of smart phones, electric vehicles and military hardware. Currently, China’s production of rare earths far outweighs that of the US.
Greenland also occupies a key strategic location in the North Atlantic, giving access to the increasingly important Arctic circle. As polar ices melt in the coming years, new shipping routes are expected to open up.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen responded to Trump by describing the notion of US control over the island as a “fantasy”.
“No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies of annexation. We are open to dialogue. We are open to discussions. But this must happen through the proper channels and with respect for international law,” he said.
Colombia
Just hours after the operation in Venezuela, Trump warned Colombian President Gustavo Petro to “watch his ass”.
Venezuela’s neighbour to the west, Colombia is home to substantial oil reserves and is a major producer of gold, silver, emeralds, platinum and coal.
It is also a key hub for the region’s drug trade – most notably cocaine.
Since the US began striking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific in September – saying, without evidence, they were carrying drugs – Trump has been locked in a spiralling dispute with the country’s left-wing president.
The US imposed sanctions on Petro in October, saying he was allowing cartels to “flourish”.
Speaking aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said Colombia was being “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States”.
“He’s not going to be doing it for very long”, he said. Asked whether the US would carry out an operation targeting Colombia, Trump replied, “It sounds good to me”.
Historically, Colombia has been a close ally in Washington’s war on drugs, receiving hundreds of millions of dollars annually in military assistance to counter cartels.
Iran
Iran is currently facing mass anti-government protests, and Trump warned overnight that the authorities there would be “hit very hard” if more protesters died.
“We’re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States,” he told reporters on Air Force One.
Iran theoretically falls outside the scope defined in the “Donroe Doctrine”, but Trump has nonetheless previously threatened the Iranian regime with further action, after striking its nuclear facilities last year.
Those strikes came after Israel launched a large-scale operation aimed at decapitating Iran’s capability to develop a nuclear weapon, which culminated in the 12-day Israel-Iran conflict.
In a Mar-a-Lago meeting between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, Iran was said to be top of the agenda. US media also reported that Netanyahu raised the potential of new strikes against Iran in 2026.
Mexico
Trump’s rise to power in 2016 was defined by his calls to “Build the 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 the “Gulf of America”.
He has frequently claimed Mexican authorities aren’t doing enough to stop the flow of drugs or illegal immigrants into the US.
Speaking on Sunday, he said that drugs were “pouring” through Mexico and “we’re gonna have to do something”, adding that the cartels there were “very strong.”
Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum has publicly rejected any US military action on Mexican soil.
Cuba
The island nation, just 90 miles (145 km) south of Florida, has been under US sanctions since the early 1960s. It held close relations with Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuela.
Trump suggested on Sunday that US military intervention there wasn’t needed, because Cuba is “ready to fall.”
“I don’t think we need any action”, he said. “It looks like it’s going down.”
“I don’t know if they’re going to hold out, but Cuba now has no income,” he added.
“They got all their income from Venezuela, from Venezuelan oil.”
Venezuela reportedly supplies roughly 30% of Cuba’s oil, leaving Havana exposed if supply collapses with Maduro gone.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio – who is the son of Cuban immigrants – has long called for regime change in Cuba, telling journalists on Saturday: “If I lived in Havana, and I was in the government, I’d be concerned – at least a little bit”.
“When the president speaks, you should take him seriously,” he said.
