January 6, 2026, 4:10 pm
Author – Jonah Valdez
President Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed “Peace President,” detonated his own America First campaign promise of “no new wars” over the weekend with an act of war in Venezuela.
The U.S. military attacked Venezuela early Saturday morning, abducting its leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, who now face narco-terrorism charges in a New York federal court. Eighty Venezuelan and Cuban citizens were killed by U.S. gunfire and airstrikes.
At least one U.S. missile struck an apartment building in the port city of Catia La Mar, killing an 80-year-old woman as she slept, seriously injuring another and displacing residents, according to The Associated Press. Trump described the attack as “successful” and “perfectly executed.”
A growing number of legal experts and lawmakers have called Saturday’s bombing of Venezuela and the abduction of Maduro illegal under both international law and the U.S. Constitution.
And yet, the Trump administration is already threatening further military action against Venezuela and other sovereign nations in pursuit of his so-called “Donroe Doctrine,” the refashioning of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, which American leaders with imperialist ambitions have used to justify U.S. occupations across Latin America throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
“Under our new national security strategy, American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again,” Trump said Saturday at a press conference following the attack on Venezuela. “Under the Trump administration, we are reasserting American power in a very powerful way in our home region.”
Though Trump campaigned on the promise of ending foreign wars, even before the attack on Venezuela, his second term has been defined by a ruthless and interventionist approach.
He has already ordered military strikes in Iran, Iraq, Nigeria,Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Before abducting Maduro, the U.S. military attacked a Venezuelan port, and killed more than 100 civilians in bombings in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. In addition, Trump continues to arm Israel as it violates the ceasefire with Hamas, grinding the genocide in Gaza into a third year.
Mere hours before the U.S. bombed Venezuela on Saturday, Trump threatened to attack Iran over its violent crackdowns on protesters, writing on social media that the U.S. is “locked and loaded and ready to go.”
And since carrying out Venezuela raid, the Trump administration has taken aim at Cuba and Colombia, hinted at intervention in Mexico, renewed annexation aspirations in Greenland, and reiterated threats to Iran.
Here’s what the administration is saying about some of the other nations where they’re threatening military action, annexation, or regime change.
Venezuela
In the Air Force One press gaggle on Sunday, Trump said further strikes on Venezuela remained an option if the country’s government does not cooperate with the Trump administration.
“If they don’t behave, we will do a second strike.”
“If they don’t behave, we will do a second strike,” Trump said.
In a televised speech hours after Saturday’s attack, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez criticized the attack as “barbaric” and “illegal” and called for the release of Maduro, who she called the country’s rightful leader. She vowed to “defend our natural resources” and said that Venezuela “will never return to being the colony of another empire.”
Rodríguez’s defiance seemingly undermined Trump’s statements that the U.S. would “run the country” and that Rodríguez is “willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.” Trump did not take her comments lightly and told The Atlantic on Sunday, “if she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”
According to the Miami Herald, Rodríguez herself played a key role in negotiations with Washington as the Trump administration pondered who should govern Venezuela, or if the U.S. should fully dismantle the current socialist government.
Rodríguez returned to a more conciliatory tone later Sunday, writing on social media that Venezuela would “invite the US government to collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation oriented towards shared development within the framework of international law to strengthen lasting community coexistence.”
Rodríguez — who was sworn in as Venezuela’s new president on Monday, despite Maduro’s claim in court that he remains president — addressed a portion of her statement directly to Trump, writing, “Our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war.”
Cuba
During the post-Venezuela attack press conference on Saturday, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio took turns answering a reporter’s question on Cuba, which has long shared close ties with Venezuela. Trump called Cuba “a failing nation” and that Cuba was “very similar” to Venezuela “in the sense that we wanna help the people in Cuba.” Rubio meanwhile took more direct aim at the Cuban government.
“If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned at least, a little bit,” he said.
The following day, Rubio, a longtime opponent of the Cuban government and an anti-Communist child of Cuban immigrants, further hinted at possible military action in Cuba during an appearance on NBC News.
“I’m not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be and our policies are going to be right now in this regard,” Rubio said. “But I don’t think it’s any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime, who, by the way, are the ones that were propping up Maduro.”
“Their days are numbered.”
Later that day, aboard Air Force One, Trump largely avoided questions about Cuba, preferring to discuss Venezuela. However, Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., who stood alongside Trump, spoke in more hawkish terms, saying, “Their days are numbered.” If the U.S. were to tell the Cuban government to surrender, Graham said, “You better take the offer,” rather than suffer the same fate as Maduro.
Graham’s combative comments drew Trump to say, “Cuba looks like it’s ready to fall.”
“I don’t know how they’re going to hold out,” Trump said. “Cuba now has no income. They got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil. They’re not getting any of it.”
However, when a reporter asked whether Trump is considering military action against Cuba, Trump said: “We’re not gonna, I think it’s just gonna fall. I don’t think we need any action. It looks like it’s going down. It’s going down for the count. You ever watch a fight?”
Colombia
Colombian President Gustavo Petro was among the first world leaders to denounce Trump’s attack on Venezuela, which he said was a violation of international law and “threatens international peace and stability, specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean, and puts the lives of millions of people at grave risk.”
In the months leading up to the attack, Petro was a constant critic of the Trump administration’s airstrikes on boats in the Caribbean, including the killing of a Colombian fisherman. The Trump administration sanctioned Petro in October, accusing him and his family of ties to the illicit drug trade, an allegation he flatly rejects, pointing to his record on seizing shipments of cocaine.
On Saturday, Trump said Petro “better watch his ass,” referencing cocaine shipments to the U.S. from Colombia. Such allegations of profiteering off the illegal drug trade is the basis of its criminal case against Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
When NewsNation’s Libbey Dean asked Trump aboard Air Force One on Sunday whether a military operation focusing on Colombia was coming, the president said, “Sounds good to me.”
Trump also told reporters on Air Force One that Colombia was being “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States,” referring to Petro. “He’s not going to be doing it for very long,” Trump added.
Petro struck a defiant tone on Monday, releasing a lengthy statement on social media, saying that he was not “illegitimate nor am I a narco,” while denouncing the prospect of U.S. attacks.
“I swore not to touch a weapon again,” said Petro, a former leftist guerilla fighter with former militant group M-19 which struck a peace deal with the Colombian government in 1989, “but for the homeland I will take up arms again.”
Petro said that if the U.S. were to bomb any of the cartel groups “without sufficient intelligence, you will kill many children,” referring to a cartel tactic of shielding leadership by surrounding themselves with children. Such bombings would motivate guerrilla fighters to return to the mountains in hiding, he added.
“And if you arrest the president whom a good part of my people want and respect, you will unleash the popular jaguar,” he said referring to the Colombian people.
Mexico
During the wide-ranging Air Force One meeting on Sunday, Trump threatened Mexico. “Mexico has to get their act together because they’re pouring through Mexico,” he said, referring to the drug trade, and claimed that “the cartels are running Mexico.” Since his first term, Trump has floated the idea of attacking Mexico’s drug cartels. In April, reports surfaced that the administration had been seriously considering drone strikes in Mexico.
“We’re going to have to do something,” Trump said on Sunday. “We’d love Mexico to do it, they’re capable of doing it, but unfortunately the cartels are very strong in Mexico.”
In early 2025, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she rejected Trump’s offer of sending U.S. soldiers to Mexico to help fight the country’s cartel groups. “Sovereignty is not for sale,” she said at the time. “Sovereignty is loved and defended.”
Sheinbaum on Monday reiterated her stance against foreign intervention in a speech, saying, “Unilateral action and invasion cannot be the basis of international relations in the 21st century; they lead neither to peace nor to development.”
“Therefore, we state clearly that for Mexico, and so it must be for all Mexicans, the sovereignty and self-determination of peoples are not optional or negotiable; they are fundamental principles of international law and must always be respected without exception,” she said.
Greenland
Before taking office, Trump expressed his desire to annex Greenland from Denmark, which currently controls the Arctic territory. The autonomous territory is rich in rare earth minerals, such as lithium and titanium, which are key to making phones and computer chips. But its location, the U.S. has claimed, is also strategic — though some experts say Trump’s claims of Russian and Chinese warships near Greenland are overblown.
In March, Vice President JD Vance visited the territory to pitch the idea of annexation while offering reassurance. “We do not think that military force is ever going to be necessary,” he said. Last month, Trump ramped up his annexation efforts by appointing Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as a special envoy to Greenland. “We have to have it,” Trump said at the time.
Trump teased future action to seize Greenland on Sunday. “We’ll worry about Greenland in about two months,” he told reporters, later specifying he meant 20 days. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”
When a reporter asked how he would justify a claim to Greenland, Trump said he didn’t want to talk about Greenland, despite having just offered a lengthy comment on Greenland. “I’ll just say this … the European Union needs us to have it, and they know that,” the president said.
Leaders from both Greenland and Denmark criticized Trump’s annexation plans. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Monday issued a warning that if the U.S. were to attack Denmark’s Greenland, an ally of the U.S. through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a strategic military alliance forged after World War II, the whole of NATO would collapse.
“I believe one should take the American president seriously when he says that he wants Greenland,” Frederiksen said in the interview, according to a translation from Bloomberg.
“But I will also make it clear that if the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops, including NATO,” she added, “and thus the security that has been established since the end of the Second World War.”
Iran
It’s not just the Western Hemisphere that is the focus of the Trump administration. After talks in the U.S. between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, the pair suggested further strikes on Iran could be coming as Israel continues to allege Iran is developing nuclear weapons, an assertion Iran rejects.
“We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”
On Friday, as demonstrations sprouted up across Iran over the country’s faltering economy, Trump said the U.S. military was prepared to attack Iran if its government killed protesters.
“If Iran shots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Thursday. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”
Around the time Trump made the statement, security forces had killed at least seven people at the rallies, according to Iranian authorities. In the days since, the death toll has risen to at least 19 people, with some estimates as high as 29.
In a vacuum, Trump’s comments appeared to stand in defense of the human rights of Iranian protesters facing brutal government repression. But the Trump administration’s heavy-handed response to protesters in the U.S. highlighted the stark contradiction between the president’s rhetoric abroad and actions.
This hypocrisy was quickly pointed out by the very Iranian leaders deploying violence against their own citizens. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi used Trump’s words to justify his own regime’s brutal crackdown. “Given President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard within U.S. borders, he of all people should know that criminal attacks on public property cannot be tolerated,” he wrote.
“Given President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard within U.S. borders, he of all people should know that criminal attacks on public property cannot be tolerated.”
Trump doubled down on his willingness to attack Iran over the protests, telling reporters on Sunday, “We’re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re gonna get hit very hard by the United States.”
In recent decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been rocked by waves of popular protests, all of which have been met by brutal force, killings, surveillance, and widespread arrests. Personal freedoms have ebbed and flowed in tandem with increasing political repression. The Iranian regime frequently uses external pressure for regime change to justify its repression.
The recent marches have focused on inflation, the rising cost of living, and soaring food prices as the Iranian currency lost half of its value to the U.S. dollar over the past year. While placing some blame on foreign interference, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian took the unusual step of nodding to government missteps as he moved to replace the country’s central bank chief.
Along with economic mismanagement, draconian sanctions by the U.S. and its Western allies have significantly contributed to Iran’s tanking economy, making it difficult for Iranian companies to do business internationally. Some of the U.S. sanctions ordered by the Biden administration stem from Iran’s violent response to a previous round of nationwide demonstrations in 2022, when Iranians protested the government killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for not wearing a hijab.
The post The List of Countries Trump Is Threatening With War Keeps Growing appeared first on The Intercept.
Full Article
Author: Jonah Valdez
