WASHINGTON- Venezuela risks “a second attack” if its interim government does not agree to US demands. Cuba is “about to fall” and Colombia is “very sick too.”
Iran could be “very affected” if its government cracks down on protesters. And Denmark is also at risk of US intervention because “we need Greenland,” President Trump said.
In just 37 minutes, while speaking to reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One, Trump threatened to attack five countries, both allies and adversaries, with the power of the U.S. military, an extraordinary turn for a president who built his political career on rejecting traditional conservative views on the exercise of American power and pledging to put America first.
The president's threats come as a third of the US naval fleet remains stationed in the Caribbean after Trump launched a daring attack on Venezuela that captured its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife over the weekend.
The goal, U.S. officials said, was to show the Venezuelan government and the world at large what the U.S. military is capable of, and force partners and enemies alike to adhere to Trump's demands through intimidation, rather than committing the U.S. military to more complex, conventional and long-term commitments.
It is the deployment of overwhelming and spectacular force in surgical military operations (the capture of Maduro, last year's attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, the assassinations of Islamic State leaders and Iran's top general in Iraq) that demonstrates that Trump is a brazen leader willing to risk war, effectively avoiding it, a Trump administration official said, explaining the president's strategic thinking.
However, experts and former Trump advisers warn that the president's approach risks miscalculation, alienating vital allies and emboldening American competitors.
At a Security Council meeting Monday at the United Nations in New York, convened by Colombia, a long-time important U.S. ally outside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Trump's actions were widely condemned. “Violations of the United Nations Charter,” a French diplomat told the council, “undermine the very foundations of the international order.”
Even Russia's envoy, who has cultivated historically strong ties with the Trump administration, said the White House operation was an act of “banditry,” marking “a return to the era of lawlessness and American dominance through force, chaos and anarchy.”
Trump's threats to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark with vast natural resources, sparked particular concern across Europe on Monday, with leaders across the continent warning the United States against an attack that would violate the sovereignty of a NATO ally and a European Union member state.
“Enough is enough,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said after Trump told reporters his attention would turn to the world's largest island in a matter of weeks.
“If the United States decides to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything would stop,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told local press. “That includes NATO and therefore post-World War II security.”
Trump also threatened to attack Iran, where anti-government protests have spread across the country in recent days. Trump had previously said that the US military was “ready and prepared” if Iranian security forces began shooting at protesters, “which is their custom.”
“The United States of America will come to your rescue,” Trump wrote on social media on January 2, hours before launching the mission to Venezuela. “We are locked, loaded and ready to go. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
In Colombia, there was widespread outrage after Trump threatened military action against leftist President Gustavo Petro, whom Trump accused, without evidence, of running “cocaine factories and factories.”
Petro is a frequent critic of the US president and has called a series of deadly US airstrikes against suspected drug trafficking ships in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific illegal.
“Stop slandering me,” Petro wrote in X, warning that any attempt by the United States against his presidency “will unleash the fury of the people.”
Petro, a former leftist guerrilla, said he would go to war to defend Colombia.
“I swore never to touch a gun again,” he said. “But for the country I will take up arms.”
Trump's threats have strained relations with Colombia, a devoted US ally. For decades, the countries have shared military intelligence, a strong trade relationship and a multibillion-dollar fight against drug trafficking.
Even some of Petro's internal critics have come to his defense. Presidential candidate Juan Manuel Galán, who opposes Petro's government, said Colombia's sovereignty “must be defended.”
“Colombia is not Venezuela,” Galán wrote in X. “It is not a failed state, and we will not allow it to be treated as such. Here we have institutions, democracy and sovereignty that must be defended.”
The president of Mexico, another longtime U.S. ally and largest trading partner, has also spoken out strongly against the U.S. operation in Caracas and said the Trump administration's aggressive foreign policy in Latin America threatens the region's stability.
“We categorically reject intervention in the internal affairs of other countries,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said at her daily news conference on Monday. “The history of Latin America is clear and convincing: intervention has never brought democracy, it has never generated well-being or lasting stability.”
He referred to Trump's comments over the weekend that drugs were “flowing” through Mexico and that the United States was “going to have to do something.”
Trump has been threatening action against cartels for months, and some members of his administration have suggested that the United States could soon carry out drone strikes against drug labs and other targets inside Mexican territory. Sheinbaum has repeatedly said that such attacks would be a clear violation of Mexican sovereignty.
“The sovereignty and self-determination of peoples are not negotiable,” he stated. “They are fundamental principles of international law and must always be respected without exception.”
Cuba also rejected Trump's threat of military intervention there, after Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio, himself a descendant of Cuban immigrants, suggested that Havana could be next in Washington's sights.
“We call on the international community to stop this dangerous and aggressive escalation and preserve peace,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel published on social media.
The US attacks on Venezuela and Trump's threats to undertake additional military projects have caused deep unrest in a relatively peaceful region that has seen fewer interstate wars in recent decades than Europe, Asia or Africa.
It also caused unrest among some Trump supporters, who recalled his promise to remove the United States from “endless” military conflicts forever.
“I was the first president in modern times,” Trump said, accepting the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, “not to start new wars.”
Wilner reported from Washington and Linthicum from Mexico City.
