Politics
What is the Monroe Doctrine, and why does Trump want to ‘reassert’ it? – National TenX News
One of the central pillars of U.S. President Donald Trump’s new national security strategy is a plan to update a more than 200-year-old foreign policy statement known as the Monroe Doctrine.
“After years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere, and to protect our homeland and our access to key geographies throughout the region,” the strategy document unveiled last week states.
The document goes on to lay out a “‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine” that prioritizes American-led cooperative efforts to combat mass migration, drug trafficking and “hostile foreign incursion or ownership of key assets.”
The strategy marks the latest evolution of the Monroe Doctrine, which has been held up as either an argument for peace and non-intervention or justification for American imperialism — depending on how U.S. presidents interpreted it.
The implications of the doctrine were particularly felt in Latin America, where Trump is currently seeking an array of strategies — from military action near Venezuela to financial aid for Argentina — to exert U.S. influence.
Here’s what to know about the Monroe Doctrine and how it has evolved over the years.
What is the Monroe Doctrine?
U.S. President James Monroe delivered what became known as the Monroe Doctrine during a State of the Union address to Congress in 1823.
The text, developed by his secretary of state John Quincy Adams, asserted that countries in the western hemisphere — identified as North and South American continents — “are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.”
At the time, Latin American nations were establishing their independence from Spain, and they welcomed Monroe’s statement as affirming their freedoms.
Yet Monroe also made clear he wanted to see the United States as the new dominant power over the hemisphere, by asserting later in the speech that any “inter-dispositions” by “any European power” would be viewed as a threat to American “peace and safety.”
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This portion of Monroe’s speech would not be formalized as the Monroe Doctrine until the late 1800s, by which time the U.S. had established itself as a world power capable of exerting its influence through military might. That’s when it began to be viewed as a key tenet of U.S. foreign policy.
In 1904, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt issued what became known as the “Roosevelt Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, which envisioned the U.S. as “an international police power” that would keep western hemisphere nations “stable, orderly and prosperous.”
Roosevelt had issued his corollary to ensure the U.S., not Europe, would intervene if necessary and “however reluctantly” to keep Latin American countries financially solvent.
Yet it was later used to justify multiple U.S. military interventions and occupations in Central American and Caribbean nations in the early 20th century, in what historians have called “gunboat diplomacy” and the so-called Banana Wars.
At the same time, Canadian politicians including then-prime minister Wilfrid Laurier were suggesting the Monroe Doctrine would protect Canada from foreign invasion because the U.S. would come to its defence.
How did the Doctrine evolve further?
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt effectively ended the Latin American interventions with the Good Neighbor policy of 1934, which sought to re-establish diplomacy and economic cooperation in the region.
However, the Cold War saw the end of that approach and re-emergence of the Monroe Doctrine as a basis for countering communism and Soviet expansionism in the western hemisphere.
That, in turn, led to a series of U.S.-backed regime change operations in Central and South America, including the 1954 coup in Guatemala that had covert support from the CIA. The doctrine was also used to justify U.S. support for right-wing dictatorships like the Pinochet regime in Chile.
In 1962, U.S. President John F. Kennedy directly cited the Monroe Doctrine in a press conference to explain why the U.S. was seeking to “isolate the communist menace in Cuba” — culminating in the Cuban Missile Crisis that year.
The Monroe Doctrine was also invoked by then-CIA director Robert Gates when it emerged that the U.S., with funds from secret arms sales to Iran, was training guerilla soldiers to overthrow the Sandinista socialist government in Nicaragua, in what became known as the Iran-Contra affair.
In 2013, then-U.S. secretary of state John Kerry declared during a speech to the Organization of American States that “the era of the Monroe Doctrine is over,” which was seen as another shift toward warming relations with Latin America.
Yet Kerry also warned during this time that the U.S. must continue to pay attention to what is happening in America’s “backyard.”
Why does Trump want to bring it back?
Trump seeking to “reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine” is further evidence of his “America First” approach to foreign policy, experts and members of his administration say.
“Past administrations perpetuated the belief that the Monroe Doctrine had expired. They were wrong,” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a speech on Saturday.
“The Monroe Doctrine is in effect and it is stronger than ever under the Trump Corollary, a common sense restoration of our power and prerogatives in this hemisphere consistent with U.S. interests.”
That strategy has been most visible in U.S. military strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean Sea since September, which have killed nearly 90 people so far, as well as a U.S. military buildup near Venezuela.
Max Cameron, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia who studies Latin America, told Global News those operations had created “a sense of horror in many places that this is a return to gunboat diplomacy, to the Monroe Doctrine, to the Americans treating the Caribbean as an American lake that they can control and do what they want in.”
Others have noted Trump’s recent announcement of a US$20-billion bailout for Argentina, and his support for the country’s right-wing populist President Javier Milei, as another sign of the Monroe Doctrine at work.
Alejandro Garcia Magos, a political science lecturer at the University of Toronto, said the alliance of “ideological soulmates” Trump and Milei may counterbalance the regional influence of more leftist leaders like Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“It’s an opportunity for Trump to have a solid friend and ally in a region that in the last 25 years has been difficult for the American to have a solid footing in,” he told Global News.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Politics
X outages reported by tens of thousands of users worldwide: Downdetector – National TenX News
X, formerly Twitter, was down for tens of thousands of users worldwide on Friday, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com.
There were more than 62,000 reports of issues with the social media platform as of 10:22 a.m. EST, according to Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from a number of sources.
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Users in the U.K. reported around 11,000 incidents and over 3,000 issues were reported in India.
The actual number of affected users may differ from what is shown on the platform, as the reports are submitted by users.
Politics
Trump says he may tariff countries that don’t ‘go along’ with Greenland plans – National TenX News
U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Friday that he may punish countries with tariffs if they don’t back the U.S. controlling Greenland, a message that came as a bipartisan Congressional delegation sought to lower tensions in the Danish capital.
Trump for months has insisted that the U.S. should control Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and said earlier this week that anything less than the Arctic island being in U.S. hands would be “unacceptable.”
During an unrelated event at the White House about rural health care, he recounted Friday how he had threatened European allies with tariffs on pharmaceuticals.
“I may do that for Greenland too,” Trump said. “I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that,” he said.
He had not previously mentioned using tariffs to try to force the issue.
Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met in Washington this week with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
That encounter didn’t resolve the deep differences but did produce an agreement to set up a working group — on whose purpose Denmark and the White House then offered sharply diverging public views.
European leaders have insisted that is only for Denmark and Greenland to decide on matters concerning the territory, and Denmark said this week that it was increasing its military presence in Greenland in cooperation with allies.
A relationship ‘we need to nurture’
In Copenhagen, a group of senators and members of the House of Representatives met Friday with Danish and Greenlandic lawmakers, and with leaders including Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
Delegation leader Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, thanked the group’s hosts for “225 years of being a good and trusted ally and partner” and said that “we had a strong and robust dialog about how we extend that into the future.”
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Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, said after meeting lawmakers that the visit reflected a strong relationship over decades and “it is one that we need to nurture.” She told reporters that “Greenland needs to be viewed as our ally, not as an asset, and I think that’s what you’re hearing with this delegation.”
The tone contrasted with that emanating from the White House. Trump has sought to justify his calls for a U.S. takeover by repeatedly claiming that China and Russia have their own designs on Greenland, which holds vast untapped reserves of critical minerals. The White House hasn’t ruled out taking the territory by force.
“We have heard so many lies, to be honest and so much exaggeration on the threats towards Greenland,” said Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic politician and member of the Danish parliament who took part in Friday’s meetings. “And mostly, I would say the threats that we’re seeing right now is from the U.S. side.”
Murkowski emphasized the role of Congress in spending and in conveying messages from constituents.
“I think it is important to underscore that when you ask the American people whether or not they think it is a good idea for the United States to acquire Greenland, the vast majority, some 75%, will say, we do not think that that is a good idea,” she said.
Along with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, Murkowski has introduced bipartisan legislation that would prohibit the use of U.S. Defense or State department funds to annex or take control of Greenland or the sovereign territory of any NATO member state without that ally’s consent or authorization from the North Atlantic Council.
Inuit council slams White House
The dispute is looming large in the lives of Greenlanders. Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said on Tuesday that “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU.””
The chair of the Nuuk, Greenland-based Inuit Circumpolar Council, which represents around 180,000 Inuit from Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russia’s Chukotka region on international issues, said persistent statements from the White House that the U.S. must own Greenland offer “a clear picture of how the US administration views the people of Greenland, how the U.S. administration views Indigenous peoples, and peoples that are few in numbers.”
Sara Olsvig told The Associated Press in Nuuk that the issue is “how one of the biggest powers in the world views other peoples that are less powerful than them. And that really is concerning.”
Indigenous Inuit in Greenland do not want to be colonized again, she said.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday even as he has questioned her credibility to take over her country after the U.S. ousted then-President Nicolás Maduro.
The Nobel Institute has said Machado could not give her prize to Trump, an honour that he has coveted. Even if the gesture proves to be purely symbolic, it was extraordinary given that Trump has effectively sidelined Machado, who has long been the face of resistance in Venezuela. He has signalled his willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who had been Maduro’s second in command.
“I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado told reporters after leaving the White House and heading to Capitol Hill. She said she had done so “as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.”
Trump confirmed later on social media that Machado had left the medal for him to keep, and he said it was an honour to meet her.
“She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much. María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done,” Trump said in his post. “Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”
The White House later posted a photo of Machado standing next to Trump in the Oval Office as he holds the medal in a large frame. A text in the frame reads, “Presented as a personal symbol of gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan people in recognition of President Trump’s principled and decisive action to secure a free Venezuela.”
Trump has raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela, giving no timetable on when elections might be held. Machado indicated that he had provided few specifics on that front during their discussion.
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She did not provide more information on what was said.
‘We can count on President Trump’
After the closed-door meeting, Machado greeted dozens of cheering supporters waiting for her near the White House gates, stopping to hug many.
“We can count on President Trump,” she told them without elaborating, prompting some to briefly chant, “Thank you, Trump.”
Before her visit to Washington, Machado had not been seen in public since she travelled last month to Norway, where her daughter received the peace prize on her behalf. She had spent 11 months in hiding in Venezuela before she appeared in Norway after the ceremony.
The jubilant scene after her meeting with Trump stood in contrast to political realities in Venezuela. Rodríguez remains in charge of day-to-day government operations, along with others in Maduro’s inner circle. In her first state of the union speech Thursday, the interim president promoted the resumption of diplomatic ties between the historic adversaries and advocated for opening the state-run oil industry to more foreign investment after Trump pledged to seize control of Venezuelan crude sales.
Trump has said it would be difficult for Machado to lead because she “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.” Her party is widely believed to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called Machado “a remarkable and brave voice” but also said the meeting didn’t mean Trump’s opinion of her changed, calling it “a realistic assessment.”
Leavitt told reporters that Trump supported new Venezuelan elections “when the time is right” but did not say when he thought that might be.
A ‘frank and positive discussion’ about Venezuela
Leavitt said Machado had sought the face-to-face meeting without setting expectations for what would occur. She spent about two and a half hours at the White House.
“I don’t think he needs to hear anything from Ms. Machado,” the press secretary said while the meeting was still going on, other than to have a ”frank and positive discussion about what’s taking place in Venezuela.”
After leaving the White House, Machado went on to a closed-door meeting with a bipartisan group of senators.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Machado told them that “if there’s not some progress, real progress towards a transition in power, and/or elections in the next several months, we should all be worried.”
“She reminded us that Delcy Rodríguez is, in many ways, worse than Maduro,” he added.
Asked if Machado had heard any commitment from the White House on holding elections in Venezuela, Murphy said, “No, I don’t think she got any commitment from them.”
Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican, was exultant following the meeting, saying Machado “delivered a message that loud and clear: What President Trump did was the most important, significant event in Latin America. That getting rid of Maduro was absolutely essential.”
Machado’s Washington stop coincided with U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea seizing another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says had ties to Venezuela. It is part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil after U.S. forces captured Maduro and his wife less than two weeks ago at a heavily guarded compound in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
Leavitt said Venezuela’s interim authorities have been fully cooperating with the Trump administration and noted that Rodríguez’s government said it planned to release more prisoners detained under Maduro. Among those released were five Americans this week.
Trump said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.
Machado doesn’t get the nod from Trump
Just hours after Maduro’s capture, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader.” Machado had steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning the peace prize, and had sought to cultivate relationships with him and key administration voices like Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate, Machado began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.
A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for travelling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush, whom Chávez considered an adversary.
Almost two decades later, she marshalled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown.
X outages reported by tens of thousands of users worldwide: Downdetector – National TenX News
Trump says he may tariff countries that don’t ‘go along’ with Greenland plans – National TenX News
Trump gifted Nobel Peace Prize by Venezuela’s María Corina Machado – National TenX News
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