During the Venezuelan Crisis of 1902-1903 President Theodore Roosevelt regarded the Venezuelan dictator of his day, Cipriano Castro, as \u201can unspeakable villainous little monkey.\u201d\u00a0 Fast forward one hundred and twenty years later, the current White House incumbent similarly decried Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro as an \u201coutlaw.\u201d\u00a0 Yet it didn\u2019t just stop at trading insults, Trump invaded the Venezuelan capital and captured Maduro and his wife.<\/p>\n
It was in November last year that President Trump made explicit his administration\u2019s key national security and strategic interests.\u00a0 His new National Security Strategy speaks of enforcing a \u201cTrump corollary\u201d to the Monroe Doctrine \u2018to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere<\/a>.\u2019 It is characteristically and unapologetically direct \u2013 it is his \u201cDonroe\u201d doctrine.<\/p>\n The Monroe Doctrine, declared in 1823, was arguably one of the first definitive statements on foreign policy by the United States which was then in its relative infancy.\u00a0 By 1823, the United States had 24 States, before the rapid movement towards Westward expansion.\u00a0 It was a largely defensive declaration warning European colonial powers against further interference in the Western Hemisphere, particularly its old British adversary.<\/p>\n Yet Trump\u2019s corollary to a two-century-old political statement of intent aligns with the United States\u2019 long history of involvement in Latin America. \u00a0The shadow of that history has been cast into sharp focus with Maduro\u2019s deposition. It is hard not to be drawn back more than a century, to the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt and his recasting of the Monroe Doctrine, and to the United States\u2019 view of the Western Hemisphere as its own backyard.\u00a0 Theodore Roosevelt\u2019s presidency was regarded as radical and unorthodox.\u00a0 He infused the office of President with a \u2018boundless energy\u2019 to which it had not been accustomed. Roosevelt challenged the status quo in both domestic and foreign arenas.\u00a0 The circumstances of the shift regarding Monroe in his day followed Venezuela\u2019s defaulting on debts owed to Germany and Britain which resulted in both nations blockading its coastline.\u00a0 Roosevelt viewed any European action in the Americas with scepticism, if not outright hostility<\/a>.<\/p>\n In his December 1904 annual address to Congress, Roosevelt announced what became his own corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. \u00a0He declared:<\/p>\n \u2018Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power<\/a>.\u2019<\/p>\n This was not merely theoretical it too was direct, infused with the dominant personality of Roosevelt.\u00a0 As the eminent historian of the United States Presidency, William Leuchtenburg<\/a>, observed, the 1904 Corollary \u2018converted the Monroe Doctrine from a warning to European powers against intervention in the Western Hemisphere into an announcement that the United States reserved to itself the right to intervene.\u2019<\/p>\n In 1903, Roosevelt sent the US Navy to prevent Colombian forces from suppressing a separatist uprising in Panama. \u00a0Within days of Panama declaring independence, the United States recognised the new country and secured control of the Canal Zone, which gave way for the eventual construction of the Panama Canal. \u00a0The move provoked fierce criticism at home. \u00a0Democrats accused Roosevelt of making war without Congress, violating international law, and pushing the republic towards empire. \u00a0Some even called for his impeachment. Roosevelt was ultimately exonerated, and the episode became a lasting precedent for unbridled presidential power in foreign affairs.\u00a0 Does this sound familiar?<\/p>\n Over one hundred and twenty years later, similar and predictable arguments and accusations are once again being heard following Donald Trump\u2019s military strikes on Venezuelan military bases and the capture of its leader, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.\u00a0 Supporters argue that Trump did not start a war but enforced order in America\u2019s own hemisphere and oversaw the culmination of a policy which began with a $50 million bounty on Maduro\u2019s head. \u00a0His core base within his administration declare that instability, drug trafficking (\u201cnarco-terrorism\u201d being the new buzzword) and mass migration are real domestic threats, as outlined within the recent National Security Strategy. \u00a0His national and international detractors counter that the President acted without proper authorisation, crossed constitutional and, increasingly meaningless international lines and flagrantly promoted an American exceptionalism, just as Roosevelt\u2019s opponents claimed in 1903 and 1904.<\/p>\n It is understandable why many would think President Trump\u2019s action is unprecedented, if this history is unknown. \u00a0However, the existence of the rules-based international order, to which we have become accustomed, is now questioned like never before.\u00a0 Yet anyone familiar with the fundamentals of the Monroe Doctrine and its subsequent iterations, will know that the United States does not necessarily equate military action in Latin America as engaging in foreign wars. \u00a0These were the \u201cforever wars\u201d which Trump railed against in 2024 and to which he pledged America under his watch would never again become entangled.<\/p>\n The US, and especially Trump\u2019s US, sees involvement in countries such as Venezuela, strategically though the lens of regional housekeeping and law enforcement.\u00a0 As Katy Balls wrote in The Sunday Times<\/em>, Trump. views drugs, migration and organised crime beyond the United States\u2019 southern border \u2018not as foreign policy problems but as domestic ones with a foreign address.\u2019<\/p>\n Trump has framed his reorientation away from the Middle East in his signature style as the \u201cDonroe Doctrine.\u201d\u00a0 He wants to show that the United States will not tolerate rival powers, hostile regimes or criminal networks turning parts of the hemisphere into staging grounds for drugs, migration pressure or foreign influence.\u00a0 All things he charges Maduro of facilitating.<\/p>\n What is clear is that the so-called \u201cDonroe Doctrine\u201d was not devised overnight, but is instead the product of a carefully constructed set of strategic aims that have realigned United States policy and ensured that the language of American military might is not just kept in reserve but actively engaged when the circumstances arise.\u00a0 Figures such as Marco Rubio, JD Vance, and Pete Hegseth have no doubt been centrally involved in shaping this approach.<\/p>\n In his second inaugural address in January 2025, Donald Trump praised earlier presidents such as William McKinley, spoke approvingly of America\u2019s past assertiveness, and even proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the \u201cGulf of America\u201d. Theodore Roosevelt famously admired the West African proverb about speaking softly while carrying a big stick. Trump, by contrast, prefers to brandish the stick loudly. Power comes first, explanation second.\u00a0 Subtlety, nor speaking softly is not part of the performance.<\/p>\n History does not repeat itself exactly, but American history comes close.\u00a0 The debate now unfolding over Trump\u2019s actions in Venezuela follows a familiar American pattern.\u00a0 As in Theodore Roosevelt\u2019s time, the question is not simply whether the United States has acted forcefully, but whether such action can be squared with its long-standing claim to be a stabilising presence in the Western Hemisphere. The capture of a Latin American leader and his indictment on federal charges, on everything from narco-terrorism to cocaine importation, may be a first for America\u2019s history in the strict sense, yet at its core it reflects an enduring belief that disorder in America\u2019s \u2018backyard\u2019 ultimately demands American intervention.\u00a0 It will be one which Donald Trump will use to the fullest effect, courtesy of \u201cDonroe.\u201d<\/p>\n About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n Peter Donnelly is a tutor at the Law School at Queen\u2019s University Belfast and completed his LLB and LLM degrees there from 2018 and 2022.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Image appears courtesy of Kremlin.ru<\/a>,\u00a0CC BY 4.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During the Venezuelan Crisis of 1902-1903 President Theodore Roosevelt regarded the Venezuelan dictator of his day, Cipriano Castro, as \u201can unspeakable villainous little monkey.\u201d\u00a0 Fast forward one hundred and twenty years later, the current White House incumbent similarly decried Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro as an \u201coutlaw.\u201d\u00a0 Yet it didn\u2019t just stop at trading insults, Trump […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2417,"featured_media":9903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[261],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-issues"],"mb":[],"acf":{"authors":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":"","value":"","field":{"ID":9774,"key":"field_66d0cbf58f930","label":"Authors","name":"authors","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"relationship","value":null,"menu_order":1,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":9772,"wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"post_type":["authors"],"post_status":["publish"],"taxonomy":"","filters":["search"],"return_format":"id","min":0,"max":10,"allow_in_bindings":0,"elements":["featured_image"],"bidirectional":0,"bidirectional_target":[],"_name":"authors","_valid":1}},"description":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":"","value":"","field":{"ID":9776,"key":"field_66d2183027749","label":"Description","name":"description","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"wysiwyg","value":null,"menu_order":3,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":9772,"wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"default_value":"","allow_in_bindings":0,"tabs":"all","toolbar":"basic","media_upload":0,"delay":1,"_name":"description","_valid":1}}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/76\/2026\/01\/Nicolas_Maduro_2019-10-25_02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"mfb_rest_fields":["title","jetpack_featured_media_url","jetpack_sharing_enabled","amp_enabled"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2417"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9898"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9910,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9898\/revisions\/9910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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