How 'King' Trump is expanding his territory in the modern age

Last week, US forces breached one of the most heavily fortified compounds in Venezuela and flew its president, Nicolás Maduro, out of the country along with his wife. 

This scene, reminiscent of the Middle Ages when kings seized rivals by force and declared new lands as their own, sets the tone for Trump's second term — a presidency increasingly being defined by colonial ambitions.

Trump later justified the operation by reaching back two centuries to revive the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, but rebranding it, with characteristic bravado, as the "Donroe Doctrine". 

The message is clear: American supremacy in its "orbit" will no longer be negotiated; it will be forced. An Al Jazeera report noted that Trump declared American dominance in the Western Hemisphere would "never be questioned again".

Now, the map of the Americas feels open to revision.

Within hours of the Venezuela raid, Trump turned his gaze to Colombia, long a close US ally in the war on drugs and a recipient of hundreds of millions of dollars in American military assistance.

Speaking aboard Air Force One, Trump warned Colombian President Gustavo Petro to "watch his ass", dismissing him as "a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States". Asked whether Washington might carry out an operation there, Trump replied to the journalists, "It sounds good to me." This was no policy briefing; it was an imperial warning.

The language matters because it signals a shift from diplomacy to decree. In Colombia's case, the stakes are not abstract. The country sits on vast oil reserves and produces gold, silver, emerald, platinum and coal, while also being a central artery of the cocaine trade.

The real world... is governed by strength, by force, by power.

Stephen Miller, Deputy Chief of Staff, White House

Since September, the US has been striking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, claiming that they were carrying drugs. Sanctions followed later in October.

However, Trump's threats stretch further than the Americas. Iran, already in a dire situation with mass anti-government protests, was told it would be "hit very hard" if authorities killed more demonstrators. The warning follows US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last year, which came after Israel's large-scale operation against Iran's nuclear programme and culminated in a 12-day Israel–Iran conflict.

At a recent Mar-a-Lago meeting between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran reportedly dominated discussions, with US media noting that Netanyahu raised the prospect of further strikes in 2026. The Donroe Doctrine may claim a regional logic, but power, in Trump's telling, travels easily across borders.

The modern colonial impulse appears in the Arctic as well. Greenland, part of the Kingdom of Denmark, home to just 57,000 people, and strategically positioned between Europe and North America, has become a fixation for King Trump.

He has repeatedly said the US needs Greenland for national security, claiming there are Russian and Chinese ships "all over the place" and that Denmark cannot protect it. The island hosts the US Pituffik Space Base, critical for missile warning and defence, and holds rare earth minerals vital for smartphones, electric vehicles and military hardware — resources that China currently dominates.

According to BBC, the White House has gone further, stating that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority and that "utilising the US military is always an option at the commander-in-chief's disposal".

European leaders responded with unusual unity. France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in affirming that Greenland "belongs to its people". Nordic foreign ministers shared the sentiment, while Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a high-level visit to Greenland in a show of solidarity.

Greenland's Prime Minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, dismissed Trump's ambitions as "fantasies of annexation", insisting that dialogue must respect international law. Denmark's foreign minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, rejected claims of Chinese militarisation, while welcoming greater US investment.

Still, Trump's envoy to Greenland, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, told Fox News Radio he was not interested in speaking to Denmark or European diplomats, preferring instead to talk directly to Greenlanders about "quality of life". Power, once again, was being rerouted around sovereignty.

In Washington, Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, told CNN that "The real world... is governed by strength, by force, by power", adding that nobody would fight the US over Greenland.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers the goal was to pressure Denmark into negotiations to buy the island, not to invade it, an assurance that did little to calm allies. Even Republican senators Jeanne Shaheen and Thom Tillis warned that the US must honour NATO obligations and respect Danish territorial integrity.

Mexico, despite rejecting Trump's offer to send US troops to fight cartels, faces renewed threats over drugs "pouring" across the border. Cuba, economically exposed after the fall of Maduro, who had supplied roughly 30 per cent of its oil, was described by Trump as "ready to fall". Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, warned from Washington that Havana's leaders should be "concerned" when the president speaks.

For decades after the Second World War, US foreign policy rested on a simple principle: nations determine their own fate. Analysts now question whether that era is ending. Melinda Haring of the Atlantic Council told Al Jazeera that a US takeover of Greenland would "upend" that principle and return the world to one where "might makes right".

Colonialism once arrived by ship and sword. In Trump's world, it travels by executive order, special envoys, and late night nabbings of sitting presidents. The crown no longer needs to be worn to be wielded.