WASHINGTON — Venezuela risks a “second strike” if its interim government does not agree to US demands. Cuba is “ready to fall” and Colombia is “also very sick.”
Iran could “suffer very badly” if its government cracks down on protesters. And Denmark also risks US intervention because “we need Greenland,” President Trump said.
In just 37 minutes during a Sunday call with reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump threatened to attack five countries, both allies and adversaries, using the might of the U.S. military. promising to put America first.
The president's threats come as a third of the US Navy remains stationed in the Caribbean after Trump launched daring attack on Venezuela Its president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife were captured last weekend.
The goal, U.S. officials said, was to show the Venezuelan government and the world what the U.S. military was capable of, and to force partners and enemies to join Trump's demands through intimidation, rather than forcing the U.S. military into more complex, conventional and long-term actions.
This is the deployment of overwhelming and impressive forces in surgical military operations – the capture of Maduro, last year strikes on Iranian nuclear facilitiesthe killings of the Islamic State leadership and Iran's top general in Iraq — which show Trump as a brazen leader willing to risk war while effectively avoiding it, a Trump administration official said, explaining the president's strategic thinking.
But experts and former Trump aides warn the president's approach risks miscalculating, alienating vital allies and emboldening U.S. rivals.
At a Security Council meeting Monday at the United Nations in New York convened by Colombia, a longtime and major U.S. ally outside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Trump's actions were widely condemned. “Violations of the UN Charter,” a French diplomat told the Council, “undermine the very foundation of international order.”
Even an envoy from Russia, which has historically maintained strong ties to the Trump administration, said the White House operation was an act of “banditry,” marking “a return to an era of lawlessness and American dominance through force, chaos and lawlessness.”
Trump's threats to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark with vast natural resources, sparked particular concern across Europe on Monday as leaders across the continent warned the United States against an attack that would violate the sovereignty of a NATO ally and European Union member state.
“Enough is enough now,” Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said after Trump told reporters his attention would turn to the world's largest island within weeks.
“If the United States decides to carry out a military attack on another NATO country, then everything will stop,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told local press. “This includes NATO and therefore post-World War II security.”
Trump also threatened to strike Iran, where anti-government protests have spread across the country in recent days. Trump previously said the US military would be “loaded and loaded” if Iranian security forces began shooting at protesters, “which is their business.”
“The United States of America will come to their aid,” Trump wrote on social media on January 2, hours before the Venezuela mission was launched. “We are locked, loaded and ready to go. Thank you for your attention on this matter!”
Was in Colombia widespread outrage after Trump threatened military action against leftist President Gustavo Petro, whom Trump accused without evidence of running “cocaine factories and cocaine factories.”
Peter is a frequent critic of the American president and has called a series of deadly US airstrikes on suspected drug ships in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific illegal.
“Stop slandering me,” Peter wrote to X, warning that any US attempts against his presidency would “cause the wrath of the people.”
Petro, a former leftist rebel, said he would go to war to protect Colombia.
“I vowed never to touch a gun again,” he said. “But I will take up arms for my Motherland.”
Trump's threats have strained relations with Colombia, a staunch US ally. For decades, the countries have shared military intelligence, strong trade relations and a multibillion-dollar fight against drug trafficking.
Even some of Peter's internal critics came to his defense. Presidential candidate Juan Manuel Galan, who opposes Petro's rule, said Colombia's sovereignty “must be protected.”
“Colombia is not Venezuela,” Galan wrote on X. “It is not a failed state and we will not allow it to be treated as such. Here we have institutions, democracy and sovereignty that must be protected.”
The president of Mexico, another longtime U.S. ally and its largest trading partner, also strongly opposed the U.S. 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 in a statement. daily press conference on Monday. “The history of Latin America is clear and convincing: intervention has never brought democracy, never brought prosperity or lasting stability.”
She addressed Trump's comments over the weekend that drugs were “flowing” through Mexico and that the United States would “have to do something.”
Trump has been threatening to take action against the cartels for months, with some in his administration suggesting the United States could soon launch drone strikes against drug labs and other targets inside Mexico. Sheinbaum has repeatedly stated that such strikes would be a clear violation of Mexican sovereignty.
“The sovereignty and self-determination of peoples are not negotiable,” she said. “These are fundamental principles of international law and must be respected at all times and without exception.”
Cuba also rejected Trump's threat of military intervention there after Trump's 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 Diaz-Canel wrote on social media.
U.S. attacks on Venezuela and Trump's threats of additional military adventures have caused deep unease in the relatively peaceful region, which has seen fewer interstate wars in recent decades than in Europe, Asia or Africa.
It also caused concern among some Trump supporters who remembered his promise to permanently remove the United States from “endless” military conflicts.
“I was the first president in modern times,” Trump said when accepting the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, “who did not start new wars.”
Wilner reported from Washington. And Linthicum from Mexico City.
