219. Trump is determined to ‘reclaim America’s backyard’.
It was not surprising when, a few days ago, the Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth mentioned the three words, “reclaim our backyard.” He was simply expressing in words what Donald Trump was doing through his actions.
In his next step, Donald Trump is hosting a summit with leaders from 10 Latin American countries at his golf resort in Miami to boost U.S. influence in the region.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the invitation-only summit was intended to promote freedom, security, and prosperity in the region.
However, the actual situation is different.
Trump’s obsession with China has become excessive. Since regaining the presidency, he has focused on resisting Chinese influence throughout the hemisphere. His strategy includes the "Trump Corollary," an extension of the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine aimed at preventing European interference in the Americas.
The only difference is that China has replaced European countries.
Trump officials agree that his “Don-roe Doctrine” is a modern revision of the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine.
Trump is unhappy with China’s approach, which focuses on Chinese infrastructure projects, military alliances, and investments in regional resource industries.
The event will be a VIP Latin America Trump Club, featuring right-wing presidents from Argentina, Bolivia, El Salvador, and Paraguay. It will exclude leftist leaders from Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, three of Latin America’s largest economies.
Paraguay's president, Santiago Peña, is very eager to attend the meeting, as is Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, who promoted joint anti-drug operations with the US.
Previously part of the anti-Trump group, the Colombian left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, will attend the meeting.
Chile’s ultra-conservative president-elect, José Antonio Kast, will be there, who has already pledged a Trump-like crackdown on immigration once he assumes office next week.
Nevertheless, the international community is confident that the region views Maduro’s detention and the US attempts to impose restrictions on Cuba as clear violations of international law.
Still, everyone wants to be in Trump’s good book and avoid a Maduro-like situation.
The Trump to-do list is long, with some accomplished and others still to be taken care of such as -
First, he vowed to take back the Panama Canal.
Then he ordered airstrikes on suspected narco boats in the Caribbean and Pacific.
He interfered in Brazil’s judicial affairs.
He threatened military action in Mexico and Colombia
To top the list was the kidnapping of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro.
In Mexico, Predator drones were deployed to target the most wanted drug lord, El Mencho. Mexico’s left-wing president, Claudia Sheinbaum, willingly accepted the CIA’s assistance in locating Mencho.
Trump has also rescued Argentina’s president, the radical libertarian Javier Milei, with a multibillion-dollar bailout.
He interfered in Honduras’s recent election in support of the eventual right-wing winner.
He recently proposed a friendly takeover of Cuba, as his administration aims to weaken the country’s struggling communist government by cutting off its oil supply.
Despite everything, Trump’s so-called ideological allies would attend the conclave, but the summit’s guest list reveals the region’s vulnerability.