Donald Trump’s second term as United States president is increasingly being defined by an aggressive projection of power far beyond America’s borders. Following the dramatic US military operation in Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, Trump has signalled that his ambitions stretch across the Western Hemisphere and into the Arctic, triggering alarm from Latin America to Europe.
After Maduro was flown to New York to face charges related to narco-terrorism, Trump declared that Washington would effectively “run” Venezuela for now and tap its vast oil reserves. The move immediately raised fears that the Venezuela operation was not an isolated act, but part of a broader strategy aimed at reshaping regional power dynamics through force and pressure.
Within hours of Maduro’s capture, Trump began issuing warnings to other governments. He accused Colombia’s president of drug production, hinted at action against Cuba and Mexico, and reignited his long-standing demand that Greenland should come under US control.
Greenland back in Trump’s sights
Speculation around Greenland intensified after a social media post by Katie Miller, wife of Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. Shortly after the Venezuela operation, she shared an image of Greenland painted in the colours of the US flag, captioned simply “soon”. The post sparked immediate backlash in Denmark and Greenland.
Jesper Moller Sorensen, Denmark’s ambassador to Washington, issued what he described as a “friendly reminder” that Denmark expected “full respect” for its territorial integrity as a close US ally. Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen called the post “disrespectful”.
“Relations between nations and peoples are built on mutual respect and international law not on symbolic gestures that disregard our status and our rights,” Nielsen wrote on X. At the same time, he sought to calm tensions, saying, “There is neither reason for panic nor for concern. Our country is not for sale, and our future is not decided by social media posts.”
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was more direct. She said Trump must “stop the threats” about taking over Greenland. “It makes absolutely no sense to talk about the need for the United States to take over Greenland,” she said, adding, “The US has no right to annex any of the three nations in the Danish kingdom.”
Frederiksen also underlined that Denmark “and thus Greenland” is a NATO member protected by the alliance’s security guarantees. She noted that Denmark already has a defence agreement with Washington granting the US access to Greenland and that Copenhagen has increased its investment in Arctic security.
Trump, however, has refused to back down. Speaking aboard Air Force One, he said, “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.” He later doubled down in an interview with The Atlantic, saying, “But we do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defence.”
Warnings to Colombia, Cuba and Mexico
Greenland is not the only country feeling the pressure. Trump’s rhetoric following the Venezuela operation has been especially sharp toward Colombia. Even as US forces were bringing Maduro to New York, Trump warned Colombian President Gustavo Petro to “watch his ass”.
“He’s making cocaine and they’re sending it into the United States, so he does have to watch his a**,” Trump told reporters.
Petro, who has criticised US military actions in the region, condemned the Venezuela strikes as an “assault on the sovereignty” of Latin America and warned they could lead to a humanitarian crisis. Trump responded by openly musing about military action. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, he said such an operation against Colombia “sounds good to me”.
“Colombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he’s not going to be doing it very long,” Trump said.
Trump has also turned his attention to Cuba. He suggested that the government in Havana could fall soon, remarks echoed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “I don’t think it’s any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime, who, by the way, are the ones that were propping up Maduro,” Rubio said in an interview with NBC News.
Rubio added, “If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned.”
Trump himself compared Cuba to Venezuela during a press conference, saying, “It’s very similar in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba, but we want to also help the people that were forced out of Cuba and are living in this country.”
Mexico has not been spared either. Trump warned that “something will have to be done” and accused Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum of allowing drug cartels to operate freely. In a Fox News interview, he suggested that Mexico’s leadership was failing to control organised crime.
Global backlash and rising unease
The Venezuela operation and Trump’s remarks have unsettled US allies as well. France’s foreign ministry said it stood in “solidarity” with Denmark, stressing that “borders cannot be changed by force”. Leaders in Finland, Sweden and Norway also voiced support for Copenhagen, with Finnish President Alexander Stubb saying, “No one decides for Greenland and Denmark but Greenland and Denmark themselves.”
China weighed in as well after Trump claimed that Russian and Chinese ships were “all over” Greenland’s coast. Beijing urged Washington to stop using the “so-called China threat as an excuse to seek personal gain”.
How far will Trump go?
Trump’s actions in Venezuela have shown that he is willing to back rhetoric with military force. His comments since then suggest a worldview where sovereignty is conditional and power is asserted openly. Whether the threats toward Greenland, Colombia, Cuba and Mexico translate into action remains uncertain.
What is clear is that Trump’s second term is reshaping how the United States is perceived globally. The question now facing the world is not whether Trump is willing to use American power, but how far and how often he will do so.
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