Lest there was any doubt about the scale of Trump’s territorial ambitions, his administration posted its message to the world in capital letters, some of them red, on social media

“This is OUR hemisphere,” the state department declared on X above a black and white picture of Trump looking grimly determined.

The White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, went on CNN to provide the rationale for Trump’s new approach to foreign policy.

“We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time,” he said.

Miller is one of the few aides to have served in high positions in both the first and second Trump tenures. He has emerged as chief ideologue, channelling the impulses of the president and packaging them as policy. In a social media post on Monday, Miller addressed the bigger picture and argued it was time for the west to stop apologising for its imperialist past.

“Not long after World War II the West dissolved its empires and colonies and began sending colossal sums of taxpayer-funded aid to these former territories (despite have [sic] already made them far wealthier and more successful),” Miller wrote:

“The neoliberal experiment, at its core, has been a long self-punishment of the places and peoples that built the modern world.”

The US has invaded a long list of countries and changed regimes many times over the past few decades, but this is the first time it has done so since the second world war as a self-proclaimed exercise in imperialism. The extraordinary change in rhetoric coming from Washington means all three of the world’s military superpowers are overtly pursuing revanchist aims, the recovery of lost Vladimir Putin has taken on the mantle of Peter and Catherine the Great in restoring historical Russian lands, at the cost so far of a million Russian troops killed or injured in Ukraine, according to the British Ministry of Defence, the culmination of a string of conquests in Chechnya and Georgia.

Xi Jinping has dedicated himself to China’s “great rejuvenation”, which includes recovering the territorial expanse of the Qing empire at its high-water mark before the “century of humiliation” at the hands of foreign powers from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. Beijing’s projection of force with military bases around the South China Sea draws from that rationale, but Xi has repeatedly made clear the mission will not be completed until Taiwan is back under Beijing’s rule.

Like the other two ageing autocrats, Trump’s vision for his country harks back to a bygone imperial past. His favourite president is William McKinley, who led the US through a surge of territorial expansion at the end of the 19th century, including the military takeover of Cuba and the annexation of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines and American Samoa.

Trump has also looked to the early 19th century for inspiration for his new bout of territorial acquisitiveness, in the form of the Monroe docwas very important, but we forgot about it. We don’t forget about it any more,” the president said on Saturday.

The reference not only reflected a view of the past uncomplicated by any detailed reading on Trump’s part, but also the changing relationship between the US and the notion of empire.

The country was founded as a rejection of British imperialism and when President James Monroe developed his doctrine in 1823, setting out the leading US role in the Americas, it was to act as a barrier to any further European colonialism.

The version of the doctrine that Trump appears to embrace, however, is its repurposing by Teddy Roosevelt in 1904 at the height of a US exercise in traditional imperialism. Under the “Roosevelt corollary”, the US took on the role of “police power” which would intervene in any country in the region where it perceived there to be “flagrant cases of wrongdoing or impotence”.

In its national security strategy document published in November, a blueprint for the expansionism of early 2026, the White House laid out a “Trump corollary” to the Monroe doctrine “to restore American pre-eminence in the western hemisphere”.

Trump calls it the “Donroe doctrine”, copying a New York Post front page from a year earlier. The difference from previous versions, he boasted characteristically, was that it would be bigger and better.

For all the febrile talk of doctrine and the sharp swerve in rhetoric coming from the White House, it is far from clear how it intends to proceed in Venezuela.

There appears to be disagreement within the administration – to the extent there is detailed discussion at all – on how to turn the president’s self-image of hemispheric emperor into a plan of action. Until that happens, what Trump has done in Venezuela is arguably not out of line with what the US has done around the world, but particularly in the Americas, when it was supposed to be abiding by the post-1945 “rules-based order”.

Some argue that, as seen from the global south, US imperialism has remained a constant, and that all Trump has done is to drop the mask of hypocrisy

“The idea that this is new is ridiculous,” said Kehinde Andrews, a professor of black studies at Birmingham City University in the UK and the author of The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World. “The US has been doing this all along, but the only difference here is it’s just brazen. There’s nothing new about this at all. This is what the west does; Trump’s just honest about it. I actually find it refreshing to be honest.”

Andrews added that if Trump carried out his threat to seize Greenland, directing his imperialist appetites towards another western state and thereby crippling Nato, it would mark a significant break with the past. But for that same reason, he doubted it would happen.

“If it was a black or brown place, it would have happened already,” Andrews said.trine.perial greatness.prove search

Trump Revives Imperialism with Bold "Donroe Doctrine"

President Donald Trump has signaled a radical shift in American foreign policy, openly embracing a new era of territorial expansion and "modern imperialism." While the President has temporarily postponed discussions regarding a potential takeover of Greenland—a semi-autonomous Danish territory—he remains firm that the move is essential for U.S. national security.

This shift is spearheaded by chief ideologue Stephen Miller, who argues that the West should stop apologizing for its colonial past. Miller contends that the post-WWII "neoliberal experiment" was a form of "self-punishment" and that the world is fundamentally governed by "strength, force, and power." To codify this, the administration has introduced a "Trump Corollary" to the 1823 Monroe Doctrine. Branded the "Donroe Doctrine," this policy asserts total U.S. pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere and positions the U.S. as a dominant "police power."

This "brazen" rhetoric places Trump alongside other global leaders pursuing revanchist aims. Just as Vladimir Putin seeks to restore "historical Russian lands" and Xi Jinping pursues the "great rejuvenation" of the Qing empire’s borders, Trump is looking back to the late 19th-century expansionism of William McKinley.

Critics and scholars, such as Professor Kehinde Andrews, argue that while U.S. interventionism is nothing new, the administration has finally "dropped the mask." While the U.S. has a long history of regime change, this marks the first time since 1945 that such actions are being framed as a self-proclaimed exercise in imperialism. Whether this translates to the actual seizure of territory like Greenland remains to be seen, but the shift in language marks a definitive end to the "rules-based order" of the previous century.

Key Takeaways

The "Donroe Doctrine": Trump has updated the Monroe Doctrine to assert aggressive U.S. dominance over the Western Hemisphere, prioritizing "power and force" over traditional diplomacy.

Territorial Ambitions: Despite a temporary delay, the administration remains focused on acquiring Greenland and restoring U.S. expansionist policies reminiscent of the late 1800s.

A New Global Era: The U.S. joins Russia and China in a trend of "revanchist" foreign policy, where military superpowers openly seek to reclaim or seize territory for national greatness.

  

Adapted by ASEAN Now from THE GUARDIAN

 

 

Where did Trump get all his medals from, bankrupting every business that he's been involved in and draft dodging on 5 different times would never rate such honours.

What, you don't think renaming the Gulf of México the Golf of Trump was a brilliant and important idea?!?

This says it all ........

"The country was founded as a rejection of British imperialism and when President James Monroe developed his doctrine in 1823, setting out the leading US role in the Americas,"

America thinking going back 200 years. Wonder what the future holds, assuming the world has changed a bit since then.

12 hours ago, NONG CHOK said:

Where did Trump get all his medals from, bankrupting every business that he's been involved in and draft dodging on 5 different times would never rate such honours.

Someone told me that he bought them from his mate Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

Looks pretty desperate to me, as though he's just realised his diaper is full.

2 hours ago, LosLobo said:

This says it all ........

If Mr Trump's own morality is the sole limit to his global power then we're all Donald Ducked!

Personally I suspect it is his mortality, political or physical, which will be the limit. Within days of his departure the whole shebang will fall apart.

15 hours ago, Bacon1 said:

A New Global Era: The U.S. joins Russia and China in a trend of "revanchist" foreign policy, where military superpowers openly seek to reclaim or seize territory for national greatness.

Samuel Huntington in his decades-old book Clash of Civilizations predicted a future U.S. administration would agree to carve up the world among the powers - a sort of gentlemen's agreement to rule their own regions without stepping on each other's toes.

Trumps behaviour within the last months reminds me of Hitler who occupied neighborts of Germany

Or, as Kamala Harris said "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

God! could you IMAGINE that cackling Bufoon in the White House with Tampon Timmy as VP?

I love my President!

"Trump - Imperialism Or Emperors New Clothes?"

I hope it's Imperialism - I really don't want him pictured naked!

I wouldn't call it either of them I call it common sense.... the Silent majority are speaking

12 hours ago, ronnie50 said:

Samuel Huntington in his decades-old book Clash of Civilizations predicted a future U.S. administration would agree to carve up the world among the powers - a sort of gentlemen's agreement to rule their own regions without stepping on each other's toes.

That makes sense.... Russia has the Ukraine.... China has Taiwan and America has South America... The perfect threesome

33 minutes ago, wombat said:

That makes sense.... Russia has the Ukraine.... China has Taiwan and America has South America... The perfect threesome

Trump, Xi and Putin, same same.

16 hours ago, GreasyFingers said:

"The country was founded as a rejection of British imperialism and when President James Monroe developed his doctrine in 1823, setting out the leading US role in the Americas,"

America thinking going back 200 years. Wonder what the future holds, assuming the world has changed a bit since then.

Orwell's "1984" with the globe divided into three control regions.

12 hours ago, puck2 said:

Trumps behaviour within the last months reminds me of Hitler who occupied neighborts of Germany

He wants to be an equal with Putin invading Ukraine. Problem with his living in the USA, but he is working hard to change the USA to be more like Russia and China, ruled from the top without term limits or those pesky "Checks and Balances".

15 hours ago, Mutt Daeng said:

Looks pretty desperate to me, as though he's just realised his diaper is full.

I think not only does he have to manage his pampers, but he also has to manage that very inconvenient colostomy bag too.

Chances are Trump is not really calling the shots, it's the Deep State that seems to be causing all this trouble, and they're just simply directing their puppet to engage in adventurism.

It's a very sad chapter in history when the country that has been known to help to maintain the world order all of a sudden decides it wants to re-engage in imperialism and colonialism.

Trump is by far the worst thing to happen to America in the past century. And some of his supporters and some members of Congress in the Senate are just now starting to wake up and realize and realize, wow he's definitely not the man I thought he was.

Trump is addressing issues which his predecessors have failed to do. Domestically, illegal border crossings have virtually been stopped, and the trade deficit has been halved. Abroad, the Venezuelan exports of narcotics to the USA have been significantly reduced.

22 hours ago, Mutt Daeng said:

Someone told me that he bought them from his mate Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

He's too cheap to buy them unless he used OPM, like the taxpayers. He & Andy could compare notes & rankings, though, like Trink.

22 hours ago, JAG said:

If Mr Trump's own morality is the sole limit to his global power then we're all Donald Ducked!

Personally I suspect it is his mortality, political or physical, which will be the limit. Within days of his departure the whole shebang will fall apart.

I don't think so. I think Heritage Foundation will replace him with another dupe(id).

Firstly don’t give trump the credit for anything he’s doing. The man’s an imbecile who just wants to perform in front of the camera and appear a tough guy, the same role he played in his $hit tv show the apprentice.

He has no comprehension of how politics works in his own country or the rest of the world. What he actually is a puppet, who strings are pulled by people like stephen miller, bannon, putin and others who use him to instigate their own agendas and let him take the credit. Something he’s done all his pathetic life. They’re are the scumbags telling trump what to do, who to attack and what he can do to get the power, and above everything else, to increase his wealth by selling favours and pardons to those rich enough to pay the shyster. What they can’t control is trump’s mental decline as his dementia becomes more obvious on a daily basis and the risk he’ll become as it worsens and becomes uncontrollable. It will happen, and just like death, that’s something nobody can control

Donald Trump is unwell.

Release the Epstein files.

22 hours ago, Look Chang said:

Trump, Xi and Putin, same same.

On 1/12/2026 at 1:10 PM, Thingamabob said:

Trump is addressing issues which his predecessors have failed to do. Domestically, illegal border crossings have virtually been stopped, and the trade deficit has been halved. Abroad, the Venezuelan exports of narcotics to the USA have been significantly reduced.

I just hope he finds a way to assist the revolutionary movement in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iranians have suffered enough since the mullahs took over in 1979.

The most hated man on the planet ,hated by friends an foes alike , leaves chaos in his wake, will have to watch his back

6 hours ago, wombat said:

On 1/11/2026 at 6:58 PM, Mutt Daeng said:

Looks pretty desperate to me, as though he's just realised his diaper is full.

Yes, looks like he just felt something warm in his trousers.......💩