Trump's Donroe Delusion

The irony is rich: Trump's own trade policies have inadvertently strengthened China's position. When the administration imposed tariffs on Chinese goods, China responded by halting purchases of US soybeans and buying them in Argentina instead. In attempting to reassert American dominance through economic coercion, Washington is actually accelerating the very trends it claims to oppose.

Perhaps nothing better illustrates the strategic incoherence of the Donroe Doctrine than the call to push out foreign companies that build infrastructure in the region. Latin America desperately needs infrastructure investment. China has been willing to provide it. The United States has not matched this commitment with comparable resources or financing mechanisms.

What exactly is Trump's alternative? Threats of military intervention? Tariffs on countries that accept Chinese investment? This is strategic malpractice dressed up as Monroe Doctrine nostalgia. In an age of interdependence, attempting to turn back the clock by blocking investment flows from extra-hemispheric powers is futile.

The military dimension of the Donroe Doctrine is equally problematic. The administration's National Security Strategy calls for targeted military deployments and strikes against cartels, and it hints at regime change in Venezuela. This is intervention-creep repackaged as border security and counter-narcotics operations.

History offers a harsh lesson here. The original Monroe Doctrine and its Roosevelt Corollary served as justification for US intervention in Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Those interventions created exactly the kind of instability, resentment and anti-American sentiment that undermines US interests today.

Does anyone seriously believe that bombing cartel targets or threatening Caracas will produce better long-term outcomes than Iraq and Afghanistan?

The deeper issue is one of legitimacy and consent. Hegemony requires cooperation from subordinate states that see benefits in the arrangement. Domination through military threats and economic coercion breeds resistance. Latin American nations have diversified their international links and benefit from trade, investment and financial cooperation from across the planet, and they're not about to surrender that autonomy because Washington demands it.

Trump's approach reflects a refusal to be apologetic for past US behavior that has long fed deep resentments against the United States. Rather than building partnerships based on mutual interest, the Donroe Doctrine doubles down on the assumption that American power alone can dictate outcomes in its“sphere of influence.”