Trump’s threats of intervention jolt allies and foes alike

WASHINGTON— Venezuela risks a “second attack” if its interim government does not yield to US demands. Cuba is “ready to fall” and Colombia is “very sick.”

Iran could be “hit very hard” if its government cracks down on protesters. President Trump said Denmark also faces the risk of US intervention because “we need Greenland.”

In just 37 minutes while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump threatened to attack five countries, both allies and enemies, with the might of the U.S. military; It’s a remarkable turnaround for a president who built his political career by rejecting traditional conservative views on the exercise of American power and promising to put America first.

The president’s threats come as a third of the US naval fleet remains stationed in the Caribbean after Trump launched a daring offensive over the weekend that captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

The goal, U.S. officials have said, is to show the Venezuelan government and the broader world what the American military can do and to force partners and enemies to comply with Trump’s demands through intimidation rather than dedicating the U.S. military to more complex, traditional, long-term engagements.

Explaining the president’s strategic thinking, a Trump administration official said that the “overwhelming and dazzling deployment of force in surgical military operations such as the capture of Maduro, last year’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the assassinations of Islamic State leaders and Iran’s top general in Iraq” portrays Trump as an arrogant leader willing to risk war and thus effectively avoiding it.

But experts and former Trump aides warn that the president’s approach risks miscalculation, alienating vital allies and emboldening U.S. rivals.

Trump’s moves were widely condemned at a Security Council meeting at the United Nations in New York on Monday (called by Colombia, long a key US ally outside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization). “Violations of the UN Charter are tearing apart the foundations of the international order,” a French diplomat told the council.

Even Russia’s envoy, which has historically strong ties to the Trump administration, said the White House operation was an act of “banditry” and amounted to “a return to an era of illegality and American domination through force, chaos and lawlessness.”

Trump’s threats to annex Greenland, an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Denmark with vast natural resources, caused particular concern in Europe on Monday; leaders on the continent have warned the United States of an attack that would violate the sovereignty of a NATO ally and European Union member state.

Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said, “That’s enough now,” after Trump told reporters that his attention would focus on the world’s largest island in a few weeks.

Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen told local media: “If the US decides to launch a military attack on another NATO country, everything stops.” “This includes NATO and therefore post-World War II security.”

Trump has also threatened to strike Iran, where anti-government protests have spread across the country in recent days. Trump has previously said the US military is “locked and loaded” if Iranian security forces open fire on protesters; It’s their tradition.”

“The United States will come to their rescue,” Trump wrote on social media on Jan. 2, hours before the launch of the Venezuela mission. “We’re locked, loaded, and ready to go. Thank you for your interest in this matter!”

There was widespread outrage in Colombia after Trump threatened military action against leftist President Gustavo Petro, whom he accused without evidence of running “cocaine factories and cocaine factories”.

Petro is a frequent critic of the American president and has called a series of deadly US airstrikes on alleged drug ships in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific illegal.

“Stop slandering me,” Petro wrote to X, warning that any US move against his presidency would “unleash the anger of the people.”

Former leftist guerrilla Petro said he would go to war to defend Colombia.

“I swore I would never touch a gun again,” he said. “But I will take up arms for my homeland.”

Trump’s threats strained relations with Colombia, a staunch ally of the United States. For decades, these countries have shared military intelligence, a strong trade relationship and a multibillion-dollar fight against drug trafficking.

Even some of Peter’s critics came to his defense. Presidential candidate Juan Manuel Galán, who opposes Petro’s rule, said Colombia’s sovereignty “must be defended.”

Galán wrote to

The president of Mexico, another long-time ally and largest trading partner of the United States, also used harsh language against the American operation in Caracas and said the Trump administration’s aggressive foreign policy in Latin America threatened the stability of the region.

“We categorically reject interference in the internal affairs of other countries,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said at her daily news conference Monday. “The history of Latin America is clear and compelling: Intervention has never brought democracy, never created prosperity or lasting stability.”

He touched on Trump’s comments over the weekend that drugs were “spreading” into Mexico and that the US “needs to do something.”

While Trump has been threatening action against the cartels for months, some members of his administration have suggested the United States could soon launch drone strikes on drug labs and other targets on Mexican soil. Sheinbaum has repeatedly said such attacks would be a clear violation of Mexican sovereignty.

“The sovereignty of peoples and their right to self-determination are indisputable,” he said. “These are the fundamental principles of international law and must be respected at all times, without exception.”

Cuba also rejected Trump’s threat to intervene militarily there after Secretary of State Marco Rubio, himself a descendant of Cuban immigrants, suggested Havana could be next in Washington’s crosshairs.

“We call on the international community to stop this dangerous, aggressive escalation and maintain peace,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said on social media.

U.S. attacks on Venezuela and Trump’s threats of additional military action have caused deep unrest in a relatively peaceful region that has seen fewer interstate wars in recent years than in Europe, Asia or Africa.

This also caused uneasiness among some Trump supporters who remembered Trump’s promise to completely rid the United States of “endless” military conflicts.

“I was the first president in modern times who did not start a new war,” Trump said as he accepted the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

Wilner reported from Washington And Linthicum from Mexico City.