President Trumpâs “Donroe Doctrine” has solidified the US grip over almost two-thirds of the Western Hemisphere, cutting deals with pro-America governments, targeting drug cartels, and booting Chinese influence, officials and experts say.
Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have prioritized as many as 20 nations across the Americas to curb threats, secure supply chains, and stop the flow of illicit drugs and migration, according to a senior administration official.
“The president first and foremost is a dealmaker, but he doesn’t put up with freeloading,” the senior official told The Post. “China’s on the back foot. For the first time, they’re forced to compete fairly and grapple with the fact that this is our hemisphere.”
The Post coined the term “Donroe Doctrine” in a Jan. 8, 2025, front-page article on Trump’s bold efforts to acquire Greenland, wrest back control of the Panama Canal and even troll Canada as a future “51st state” to the US.
While Trump didnât annex Greenland, the pressure campaign extracted a defense pact granting the US military access to two strategic Arctic bases. Panama also pulled out of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative to align with Washington, a move Rubio hailed as vital for an open, secure canal.
The administration further conditioned foreign aid away from progressive initiatives, paving the way for conservative candidates to sweep a half dozen regional elections, Trump allies claim.
“The world is one big chessboard right now,” said Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “The administration sees China as the number one adversary and is positioning the United States for a fierce competition over the coming decades.”
Cuffed in Brooklyn
The White House has hammered cartels through strict border controls, surgical military strikes on maritime smuggling vessels, and the 15-nation Shield of the Americas defense coalition alongside El Salvador, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, and Panama. Another four nationsâBahamas, Belize, Guatemala, and Jamaicaâsigned onto the broader Counter Cartel Coalition.
Yet the crown jewel of Trump’s doctrine remains Caracas.
In January 2026, US military forces stormed the Venezuelan capital, capturing socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, toppling his regime in hours. With Maduro locked in a federal jail cell in Brooklyn awaiting trial on narcoterrorism and corruption charges, Trump negotiated a 65-billion-barrel oil reserve pact with the new interim government.
“To the victor belong the spoils, right?” Trump told supporters in Corpus Christi, Texas, touting an initial shipment of 1 million barrels of Venezuelan crude delivered directly to US refineries.
At the United Nations, Trump boasted that combining US and Venezuelan reserves gives the alliance control over “more than 60% of the oil in the world.”
The Venezuelan takeover has left communist Cuba on its knees. Starved of Havanaâs lifeline of subsidized Venezuelan oil, the regime is buckling under intensified US sanctions. Trump said the communist regime 90 miles off Floridaâs coast will fall before he departs the Oval Office.
Andrew Leonard, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, noted that the White House is treating regional neighbors “not just as lower neighbors, but as active participants in security.”
“After years of neglect, President Trump established the ‘Donroe Doctrine’ to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere,” added White House National Security Council spokeswoman Anna Kelly.
A stable backyard
The White House has also moved aggressively to lock down natural resources and muscle out adversaries.
“When Maduro was running Venezuela, Iranian Quds Force agents had an active military presence,” the senior official said. “Thatâs long gone. We kicked all of them out. Latin America has pretty much all of the natural resources we need to be economically independent from China.”
Bilateral trade deals followed with El Salvador, Guatemala, Ecuador, and Argentina, with Buenos Aires granting the US critical access to lithium and rare earth minerals. El Salvadorâs Nayib Bukele also partnered with the State Department to house deported gang members in the nation’s mega-prisons.
Trump’s team applied similar muscle to the Panama Canal.
“We built that thing. Americans died for that thing,” the official said. “Under previous administrations, we basically let China control it. Trump said, ‘No, we’re putting more of a military presence down there.’ The Chinese company was kicked out.”
Kelly noted that Trumpâs actions have restored regional stability: “Our southern border is secure, Latin American countries are working with us to defeat the cartels, and illegitimate dictator Nicolas Maduro is facing justice in the Southern District of New York,â she said.
New pro-America leaders
Insiders say the Donroe Doctrine is excising the “scourge of communist ideology” through the electoral process, aided by Trumpâs decision to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which conservatives accused of bankrolling leftist agendas.
Conservative and center-right leaders have notched election victories in Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Colombia, where Miami native and Trump ally Abelardo de la Espriellaâdubbed “El Tigre”âtook the presidency. They join Argentine President Javier Milei and El Salvadorâs Bukele in a pro-US regional bloc.
Still, challenges remain. Leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won re-election in Brazil, sending Trump-aligned challenger Flávio Bolsonaro fleeing to Miami.
In Canada, liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney held off an Alberta secession push and remains locked in a bitter trade dispute with Washington.
Mexico is cooperating with the US on curbing drugs and illegal immigration, but also has ongoing tariff controversies with the US.
While Rubio has vowed the US will no longer allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operations for rivals, Russia still maintains military and intelligence ties with Cuba and Nicaragua, while China has invested heavily in ports and infrastructure in Jamaica, the Bahamas and Guyana, alongside suspected intelligence operations in Cuba.
Meanwhile, Trumpâs focus on the Americas comes as the US and Israel started a war against Iran in February. White House insiders dismiss concerns that Middle Eastern operations will distract from the home front.
“That’s a temporary sort of conflict,” the senior official insisted. “We ran the entire Venezuela project while Iran was ongoing, and we’re tackling Cuba. We’ve stayed full steam ahead in the Western Hemisphere.”
Trump has made that clear, too, quipping that US forces returning from the Middle East might just “stop by” Cuba on their way home.
