President Donald Trump<\/span>, the self-proclaimed \u201cPeace President,\u201d detonated his own America First campaign promise of \u201cno new wars\u201d over the weekend with an act of war<\/a> in Venezuela<\/a>.<\/p>\n The U.S. military attacked Venezuela early Saturday morning, abducting its leader Nicol\u00e1s 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.<\/p>\n At least one U.S. missile struck an apartment building in the port city of Catia La Mar, killing an 80-year-old woman<\/a> as she slept, seriously injuring another and displacing residents, according to The Associated Press. Trump described the attack as \u201csuccessful\u201d and \u201cperfectly executed.\u201d<\/p>\n A growing number of legal experts<\/a> and lawmakers have called Saturday\u2019s bombing of Venezuela and the abduction of Maduro illegal<\/a> under both international law<\/a> and the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n And yet, the Trump administration is already threatening further military action against Venezuela and other sovereign nations in pursuit of his so-called \u201cDonroe Doctrine,\u201d the refashioning of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, which American leaders with imperialist ambitions <\/a>have used to justify U.S. occupations<\/a> across Latin America throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.<\/p>\n \u201cUnder our new national security strategy, American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again,\u201d Trump said Saturday at a press conference following the attack on Venezuela. \u201cUnder the Trump administration, we are reasserting American power in a very powerful way in our home region.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n He has already ordered military strikes<\/a> in Iran<\/a>, Iraq<\/a>, Nigeria<\/a>, Somalia<\/a>, Syria<\/a> and Yemen<\/a>. Before adducting Maduro, the U.S. military attacked a Venezuelan<\/a> port, and killed more than 100 civilians in bombings in the Caribbean<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Mere hours before the U.S. bombed Venezuela on Saturday, Trump threatened to attack Iran over its violent crackdowns on protesters, writing<\/a> on social media that the U.S. is \u201clocked and loaded and ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what the administration is saying about some of the other nations where they\u2019re threatening military action, annexation, or regime change.<\/p>\n In the Air Force One press gaggle on Sunday, Trump said further strikes on Venezuela remained an option if the country\u2019s government does not cooperate with the Trump administration. <\/p>\n \u201cIf they don\u2019t behave, we will do a second strike.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cIf they don\u2019t behave, we will do a second strike,\u201d Trump said. <\/p>\n In a televised speech hours after Saturday\u2019s attack, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez criticized the attack as \u201cbarbaric\u201d and \u201cillegal\u201d and called for the release of Maduro, who she called the country\u2019s rightful leader. She vowed to \u201cdefend our natural resources\u201d and said that Venezuela \u201cwill never return to being the colony of another empire.\u201d <\/p>\n Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s defiance seemingly undermined Trump\u2019s statements that the U.S. would \u201crun the country\u201d and that Rodr\u00edguez is \u201cwilling to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.\u201d Trump did not take her comments lightly and told The Atlantic<\/a> on Sunday, \u201cif she doesn\u2019t do what\u2019s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the Miami Herald<\/a>, Rodr\u00edguez 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. <\/p>\n Rodr\u00edguez returned to a more conciliatory tone<\/a> later Sunday, writing on social media that Venezuela would \u201cinvite 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Rodr\u00edguez \u2014 who was sworn in as Venezuela\u2019s new president on Monday, despite Maduro\u2019s claim in court that he remains president \u2014 addressed a portion of her statement directly to Trump, writing, \u201cOur peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war.\u201d<\/p>\n During the post-Venezuela attack press conference on Saturday, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio took turns answering a reporter\u2019s question on Cuba, which has long shared close ties with Venezuela. Trump called Cuba \u201ca failing nation\u201d and that Cuba was \u201cvery similar\u201d to Venezuela \u201cin the sense that we wanna help the people in Cuba.\u201d Rubio meanwhile took more direct aim at the Cuban government.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I\u2019d be concerned at least, a little bit,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m 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,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think it\u2019s any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime, who, by the way, are the ones that were propping up Maduro.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTheir days are numbered.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n 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, \u201cTheir days are numbered.\u201d If the U.S. were to tell the Cuban government to surrender, Graham said, \u201cYou better take the offer,\u201d rather than suffer the same fate as Maduro. <\/p>\n Graham\u2019s combative comments drew Trump to say, \u201cCuba looks like it\u2019s ready to fall.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how they\u2019re going to hold out,\u201d Trump said. \u201cCuba now has no income. They got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil. They\u2019re not getting any of it.\u201d<\/p>\n However, when a reporter asked whether Trump is considering military action against Cuba, Trump said: \u201cWe\u2019re not gonna, I think it\u2019s just gonna fall. I don\u2019t think we need any action. It looks like it\u2019s going down. It\u2019s going down for the count. You ever watch a fight?\u201d<\/p>\n Colombian President Gustavo Petro was among the first world leaders to denounce Trump\u2019s attack on Venezuela, which he said was a violation of international law and \u201cthreatens international peace and stability, specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean, and puts the lives of millions of people at grave risk.\u201d<\/p>\n In the months leading up to the attack, Petro was a constant critic of the Trump administration\u2019s airstrikes on boats in the Caribbean, including the killing of a Colombian fisherman<\/a>. The Trump administration sanctioned<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n On Saturday, Trump said Petro \u201cbetter watch his ass,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n When NewsNation\u2019s Libbey Dean asked Trump<\/a> aboard Air Force One on Sunday whether a military operation focusing on Colombia was coming, the president said, \u201cSounds good to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump also told reporters on Air Force One that Colombia was being \u201crun by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States,\u201d referring to Petro. \u201cHe\u2019s not going to be doing it for very long,\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Use<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Petro struck a defiant tone on Monday, releasing a lengthy statement on social media, saying that he was not \u201cillegitimate nor am I a narco,\u201d while denouncing the prospect of U.S. attacks.<\/p>\n \u201cI swore not to touch a weapon again,\u201d said Petro, a former leftist guerilla fighter with former militant group M-19 which struck a peace deal<\/a> with the Colombian government in 1989, \u201cbut for the homeland I will take up arms again.\u201d<\/p>\n Petro said that if the U.S. were to bomb any of the cartel groups \u201cwithout sufficient intelligence, you will kill many children,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if you arrest the president whom a good part of my people want and respect, you will unleash the popular jaguar,\u201d he said referring to the Colombian people. <\/p>\n During the wide-ranging Air Force One meeting on Sunday, Trump threatened Mexico. \u201cMexico has to get their act together because they\u2019re pouring through Mexico,\u201d he said, referring to the drug trade, and claimed that \u201cthe cartels are running Mexico.\u201d Since his first term, Trump has floated the idea of attacking Mexico\u2019s drug cartels. In April, reports<\/a> surfaced that the administration had been seriously considering drone strikes <\/a>in Mexico. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to do something,\u201d Trump said on Sunday. \u201cWe\u2019d love Mexico to do it, they\u2019re capable of doing it, but unfortunately the cartels are very strong in Mexico.\u201d <\/p>\n In early 2025, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she rejected Trump\u2019s offer of sending U.S. soldiers to Mexico to help fight the country\u2019s cartel groups. \u201cSovereignty is not for sale,\u201d she said at the time. \u201cSovereignty is loved and defended.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheinbaum on Monday reiterated her stance against foreign intervention in a speech<\/a>, saying, \u201cUnilateral action and invasion cannot be the basis of international relations in the 21st century; they lead neither to peace nor to development.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTherefore, 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 though some experts<\/a> say Trump\u2019s claims of Russian and Chinese warships near Greenland are overblown.<\/p>\n In March, Vice President JD Vance visited the territory to pitch <\/a>the idea of annexation while offering reassurance. \u201cWe do not think that military force is ever going to be necessary,\u201d he said. Last month, Trump ramped up his annexation efforts by appointing Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as a special envoy<\/a> to Greenland. \u201cWe have to have it,\u201d Trump said at the time.<\/p>\n Trump teased future action to seize Greenland on Sunday. \u201cWe\u2019ll worry about Greenland in about two months,\u201d he told reporters, later specifying he meant 20 days. \u201cWe need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n When a reporter asked how he would justify a claim to Greenland, Trump said he didn\u2019t want to talk about Greenland, despite having just offered a lengthy comment on Greenland. \u201cI\u2019ll just say this \u2026 the European Union needs us to have it, and they know that,\u201d the president said.<\/p>\n Leaders from both Greenland and Denmark criticized Trump\u2019s annexation plans. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Monday issued a warning that if the U.S. were to attack Denmark\u2019s Greenland, an ally of the U.S. through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a strategic military alliance<\/a> forged after World War II, the whole of NATO would collapse.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe one should take the American president seriously when he says that he wants Greenland,\u201d Frederiksen said in the interview, according to a translation from Bloomberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I will also make it clear that if the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops, including NATO,\u201d she added, \u201cand thus the security that has been established since the end of the Second World War.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s 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<\/a> Iran rejects<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are locked and loaded and ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n On Friday, as demonstrations sprouted up across Iran over the country\u2019s faltering economy, Trump said the U.S. military was prepared to attack Iran if its government killed protesters. <\/p>\n \u201cIf Iran shots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue,\u201d Trump posted<\/a> on his Truth Social platform on Thursday. \u201cWe are locked and loaded and ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n Around the time Trump made the statement, security forces had killed at least seven people<\/a> at the rallies, according to Iranian authorities. In the days since, the death toll has risen to at least 19<\/a> people, with some estimates as high as 29<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a vacuum, Trump\u2019s comments appeared to stand in defense of the human rights of Iranian protesters facing brutal government repression. But the Trump administration\u2019s heavy-handed response<\/a> to protesters in the U.S.<\/a> highlighted the stark contradiction<\/a> between the president\u2019s rhetoric abroad and actions.<\/p>\n This hypocrisy was quickly pointed out by the very Iranian leaders deploying violence against their own citizens. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi used Trump\u2019s words to justify his own regime\u2019s brutal crackdown. \u201cGiven President Trump\u2019s deployment of the National Guard within U.S. borders, he of all people should know that criminal attacks on public property cannot be tolerated,\u201d he wrote<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cGiven President Trump\u2019s deployment of the National Guard within U.S. borders, he of all people should know that criminal attacks on public property cannot be tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Trump doubled down on his willingness to attack Iran over the protests, telling reporters on Sunday, \u201cWe\u2019re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they\u2019re gonna get hit very hard by the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n In recent decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been rocked by waves<\/a> of popular protests<\/a>, all of which have been met by brutal force<\/a>, killings, surveillance<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s central bank chief.<\/p>\n Along with economic mismanagement, draconian sanctions<\/a> by the U.S. and its Western allies have significantly contributed to Iran\u2019s 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\u2019s violent response to a previous round of nationwide demonstrations in 2022, when Iranians protested the government killing <\/a>of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for not wearing a hijab.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n #List #Countries #Trump #Threatening #War #Growing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Donald Trump, the se… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[246],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"04](\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AP26004738301630.jpg?fit=5437%2C3625\")
Venezuela <\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Cuba<\/h2>\n
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Colombia<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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\n <\/a><\/p>\nMexico<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Iran<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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