Column: Trump’s 626 overseas strikes aren’t ‘America First.’ What’s his real agenda?
Who knew that’s what President Trump meant when he said “America First”? All From the American continent?
At least as I ponder this question, I am joined by Marjorie Taylor Greene, now a former congresswoman from Georgia and onetime Trump supporter who remains a stalwart in the America First movement. Greene he tweeted On Saturday, just before Trump’s triumphant press conference about the US decapitating the Venezuelan government after the military captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife in the middle of the night: “A lot of people in MAGA thought they were voting to end this. Boy were we wrong.”
It’s really wrong. Nearly a year into his second term, Trump has done nothing but worsen the domestic problems that Greene identified as his America First priorities—bringing down the “rising costs of living, housing, and health care” in all 50 states—while pursuing the “unending military aggression” and foreign adventurism that America Firsts despise, or at least are accustomed to. Another Trump scam. Another lie.
Here is a striking statistic, Thanks to Military Times: In 2025, Trump orders 626 missile strikes worldwide; That’s 71 more than President Biden has done in his four years in office. Targets so far have included Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Nigeria, Iran and the waters off Venezuela and Colombia. Recently, he threatened to strike Iran again if demonstrators marching on the streets of Tehran to protest the country’s poor economic conditions are killed. (“We’re locked, loaded and ready to go,” Trump wrote) Friday.)
He’s said many times that the president doesn’t like “endless wars,” but he sure likes quick explosions and cinematic covert operations. Leave aside for now the attacks in the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean, and the Eastern Pacific. Trump’s new claim “to run” Venezuela has signaled the beginning of its mind-boggling push for US hegemony over the Western Hemisphere. Such ambition increases the potential for rapid actions to become quagmire.
Perhaps as Stephen Miller, Trump’s closest and most like-minded (read: unhinged) advisor, described the administration’s tone world view “We live in a real world, Jake, ruled by power, ruled by power, ruled by power. These have been the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday.
You know, that old, amoral iron law: “Might makes right.” This is music to the ears of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, who seek their own hegemonic expansion as they believe the United States has given up the moral ground to object.
But it was Trump, the branding expert, who gave his name to the White House’s worldview; Of course, its own name: Donroe Doctrine. And it was Trump who did it clearly stated What this could mean in practice for the Americas is a chest-thumping, warmongering performance that returns to Washington on Air Force One on Sunday. The wannabe king of the United States turns out to be the wannabe emperor of the entire hemisphere.
“We are responsible,” Trump told reporters about Venezuela. “We’re going to make this work. We’re going to fix it. We’re going to hold elections at the right time.” HE added“If they don’t behave, we’ll make a second attack.” He continued in a pointedly ominous tone: “Colombia is also very sick” and “Cuba is ready to fall.” Looking north, he yearned for more: “We need Greenland because of the national security situation.”
Separately, Trump recently in question Given Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro “needs to watch his ass” and Trump’s unhappiness with non-kneeling Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum “Something will have to be done about Mexico.” Trump’s apparent complaints in both their and Maduro’s cases were that each was complacent or complicit with drug cartels.
And yet just last month Embers forgiven Former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, was convicted and sentenced in a US court. 45 years in prison For his central role in “one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world.” Hernández helped smugglers send 400 tons of cocaine to the United States to “shove the drugs into foreigners’ noses.” And Trump pardoned him less later two years imprisonment.
So it is implausible that a few weeks later the US president actually believed that he should take a tough line against leaders he suspected of abetting the drug trade. Maybe Trump’s real motivation is something other than drug trafficking?
Trump used the word “oil” 21 times in his speech after Maduro’s arrest. He announced on social media on Tuesday to mailOf course, he was taking control of the revenue from Venezuelan oil, up to 50 barrels. (He doesn’t care, but that would be a violation of the Constitution, which gives Congress the power to seize money coming into the U.S. Treasury.)
Or perhaps, in keeping with the Monroe Doctrine, our current president has a retro urge to dominate half the world.
His focus lately has been Venezuela and South America, but North America is also in his area of interest. Trump has long said he could target Mexico to hit the cartels and that Canada, the US’s other North American neighbor, should become the 51st state. However, the place he is most interested in is Greenland, the third part of North America.
Fewer than 60,000 people live on the icy island, but its mineral wealth is increasingly accessible given climate warming, which Trump has called a hoax. So it’s not just America’s problem to claim rights. In the words of Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, this is an existential threat to NATO, given that Greenland is an autonomous part of NATO ally Denmark. warned.
For 80 years, no one had thought that NATO, which adheres to the principle that an attack on one member is an attack on all members, would be attacked from within, at least from the United States. remarkably expression On Tuesday, US allies rallied around Denmark: “It is up to Denmark and Greenland alone to decide on matters affecting Denmark and Greenland.”
Trump’s insistence that controlling Greenland is essential to US national security is insane. The United States has had military bases there since World War II, and NATO as a whole sees Greenland as a critical region for defense against Russian and Chinese encroachment in the Arctic. Still, Trump does not rule out using force to seize the island.
He fancies himself the emperor of America – that’s all. America first.
Blue sky: @jackiecalmes
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