President Trump ran as president of the world, but since taking office he has unleashed military action, striking Iran, Yemen, Nigeria, Syria and Venezuela, as well as threatening others.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
It's been a remarkable start to the new year for President Trump, from authorizing an attack on Venezuela in the wee hours last Saturday to threatening to seize Greenland. These are the words of a president who openly covets the Nobel Peace Prize and who campaigned on a promise to keep the United States out of foreign wars. NPR world affairs correspondent Jackie Northam reports.
JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: By any measure, President Trump's second term has been far more powerful than his first – launching military strikes and spreading threats from Africa to the Middle East and now Latin America. Here he is aboard Air Force One just hours after the US raid on Venezuela and the arrest of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, wondering what might come next for Mexico and its drug cartels…
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Mexico has to get its act together because it's going to come through Mexico and we're going to have to do something.
NORTHAM: …For Iran…
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TRUMP: If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think the United States will suffer greatly from them.
NORTHAM: …And Greenland.
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TRUMP: We need Greenland from a national security perspective. It's so strategic.
NORTHAM: Trump has also made similar proposals regarding Cuba and Colombia. The strikes were carried out in Yemen, Syria and Nigeria. He threatened Canada, Panama and other countries.
STUART PATRICK: There is no doubt that in his second term, Donald Trump is completely free and eager to spread America's weight around the world.
NORTHAM: That's Stuart Patrick, a specialist in world order and international cooperation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He says Trump is brushing aside the rules-based international order in his efforts to ensure US dominance.
PATRICK: Donald Trump feels no restraint and has a strong sense of arrogance in the way he interacts with the world. You know, he's in a sense at the peak of his popularity since (laughter) he got rid of President Maduro.
NORTHAM: Laurel Rapp, who heads the US and North America program at the London think tank Chatham House, agrees that Trump is demonstrating stronger foreign policy ambitions in his second term. She sees several major differences from his first term in office.
LAUREL RAPP: First of all, it's geography. Trump is ready to use US military power around the world, from Latin America to Africa and the Middle East, and now potentially in Greenland and Europe.
NORTHAM: Rapp says the second difference is the level of risk. The operation in Venezuela is a prime example.
RAPP: And the third big difference is that he is willing to go after not only adversaries, but also allies – treaty allies.
NORTHAM: Stephen Miller, one of Trump's top aides, lays bare the administration's view of brute force during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper.
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STEPHEN MILLER: We live in a world – a real world, Jake – that is governed by power, which is governed by power, which is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that existed…
JAKE TAPPER: But you're saying that…
MILLER: …Since the beginning of time.
NORTHAM: But Rapp, who spent 14 years at the State Department, says just because the military can invade a country doesn't mean it will lead to lasting change.
RAPP: When you have insufficient planning, when you have unclear and conflicting goals, a lack of diplomatic capacity in the country, limited or shifting U.S. attention, and unrealistic timelines, it's a recipe for failure.
NORTHAM: Carnegie's Patrick says the administration's use of force to advance national interests provides an opportunity for great powers in other parts of the world.
PATRICK: Not least, China and Russia are effectively legitimizing their own claims to a sphere of influence in their immediate backyards. In this way, it provides cover to a number of US adversaries around the world so that they can do the same where they are.
NORTHAM: There's always been a perception that threats against Greenland, Colombia and other countries are just overheated rhetoric or a negotiating tactic. But Venezuela proves that nothing is ruled out.
Jackie Northam, NPR News.
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