Full list of countries Trump could take over next | World | News

President Donald Trump may have more countries on his target list after his audacious invasion and kidnapping of Venezuela’s leader over the weekend. American special forces captured the South American country’s controversial president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores after a nighttime raid on the capital Caracas.

Maduro pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking charges in a US courtroom on Monday, and despite the establishment of an interim government in Venezuela, Trump said the US would “govern” the country until a “safe, appropriate and reasonable transition” was achieved. He also said US oil companies would fix the “broken infrastructure” and “start making money for the country.”

“The United States will reassert and implement the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere,” states page 15 of the new US National Security Strategy (NSS), and it seems there may be more countries where Trump and Washington would like to impose their will.

Scroll down for a list of countries America might consider taking control in 2026.

Cuba

The island nation, the United States’ neighbor in the Caribbean and about 90 miles from Florida, has long been a thorn in the side of successive U.S. governments. This bad feeling dates back to the 1950s and the dark days of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when Cuba’s communist leadership invited the Soviets to station nuclear-capable missiles on the island. The move appeared likely to spark a world war between Russia and the United States. The doomsday scenario was averted when Moscow backed down, but the Latin nation continued to be distrusted by American administrations.

The United States has long maintained a naval base on the island of Cuba, at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and although relations have thawed somewhat in recent years, Cuba is still under US sanctions and the government has close relations with the Maduro regime in Venezuela.

On Sunday, Trump said there was no need for the United States to attack Cuba because the government there was “ready to fall” because it could no longer get oil revenue from Venezuela.

If US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, were part of the government in Havana, Cuba’s capital, he said: “I would be at least a little worried. When the president speaks, you have to take him seriously.”

Greenland

Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in gaining control of the world’s largest island, located off the Atlantic Arctic coast of the United States and Canada. The vast landmass is believed to contain large mineral and resource deposits, and Trump has also publicly stated that he believes the region is vital to US national defense against the hostile intentions of Russia and China.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One recently, Trump said, “We need Greenland for national security” and claimed that “everywhere is covered with Russian and Chinese ships.” Greenland is administered by US NATO ally Denmark, and both the regional government and officials in Copenhagen have reacted angrily to US overtures to seize the island, with both saying such a deal would not happen.

Iranian

The Islamic Republic became the target of US firepower in attacks on suspected nuclear sites last year. But in recent weeks the country has seen rare signs of unrest among its population, who have protested in towns and cities against authoritarian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the brutal Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Trump said of the recent riots: “We’re watching very closely. If they start killing people like they’ve done in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States.” He added that the United States is “locked and loaded” ready to act.

Colombia

Colombia is Venezuela’s close neighbor, both politically and geographically. Since the attack by US forces over the weekend, authorities in Bogata have moved tens of thousands of Colombian soldiers to the Venezuelan border as a preemptive measure against any US attack.

Trump warned Colombian President Gustavo Petro to “watch his ass,” adding that he thought the country was “run by a sick man who likes to make cocaine and sell it to the United States.”

He said: “He won’t be doing this for very long.”

President Petro rejected Trump’s accusations that he was sending cocaine to the United States and said he strongly rejected US plans to launch attacks against drug traffickers in the South American country.

In a message on Petro, who was a member of a leftist guerrilla group in his youth, said he would “go back to arms” if the US government launched an attack on Colombian territory. The Colombian leader said he recently fired Colombian intelligence officers who fed the US administration “false information” about his government.

Mexican

Mexico is already battered by US trade war tariff threats from the White House, and the border between the US and its Central American neighbor now boasts a giant wall built on President Trump’s orders.

Trump also signed a new resolution declaring that the former Gulf of Mexico will now be called the “Gulf of America” ​​and frequently accuses Mexican officials of allowing illegal immigrants and drugs to enter the United States.

Trump told reporters on Sunday that “we have to do something” about drug cartels, which he said are “too powerful.” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has publicly rejected any US military action on Mexican soil.