Over the past few months, President Trump has pursued a much more aggressive foreign policy than past presidential administrations in the modern era, and has taken a larger expansionist approach than anybody, including those on the right, could have imagined.
On January 3rd, the U.S. launched a military operation in Venezuela, taking Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro into custody, where he faces numerous drug trafficking charges. However, earlier this week, the U.S. and Venezuela agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum discussed oil and mineral opportunities with acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, and reaffirmed America’s commitment to promoting stability and economic recovery. Rodriguez expressed that the Venezuelan government has a full willingness to cooperate with the United States. Later in January, President Trump reaffirmed his interest in annexing Greenland, which sent shock throughout the international community. This was felt particularly among our NATO allies, who feel that the U.S. approach on Greenland threatens to undermine NATO’s very existence. European nations like France, Germany, and Sweden even sent military personnel to Greenland in response. Greenland has high geopolitical importance, as it is essential to Arctic security, shipping routes, and is rich in natural resources.
More recently, the U.S. has gone to war with Iran alongside Israel, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a series of missile strikes. As the conflict has raged on for over a week, it is not clear at all what will pan out long term in Iran or the Middle East as whole. However, whereas previous administrations have tried to slowly reduce America’s presence in the Middle East, President Trump has brought upon us a new era of U.S. involvement.
This week, President Trump has also expressed interest in carrying out regime change in Cuba, indicating that he wants to take action within a few weeks. On March 7th, the President announced that similar action to what happened in Venezuela will be taken in Cuba. On Saturday, he told dozens of world leaders that “Cuba’s at the end of the line. They’re very much at the end of the line. They have no money. They have no oil. They have a bad philosophy. They have a bad regime that’s been bad for a long time . . . But Cuba’s in its last moments of life as it was. It’ll have a great new life, but it’s in its last moments of life the way it is.”
While I agree that it is important to maintain U.S. hegemony, doing all this so quickly leaves a lot of room for mistakes. The United States does not have a great track record when it comes to regime change, so Americans, and the world, absolutely have the right to question these choices. However, if the Trump Administration is able to successfully pull all this off, it will likely usher in an era of peace and global stability.
