Trump calls Monroe Doctrine the 'Donroe Doctrine' after Venezuela raid
- - Trump calls Monroe Doctrine the 'Donroe Doctrine' after Venezuela raid
Kathryn Palmer, USA TODAYJanuary 4, 2026 at 1:47 AM
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In his hourlong press conference following the early morning capture of Venezuela's leader and his wife, President Donald Trump justified the operation as one in line with a more than 200-year-old foreign policy agenda, the Monroe Doctrine.
More: Venezuela attack updates: US to 'run' country after Maduro capture, Trump says
The doctrine, which the president has called the "Donroe Doctrine," has for years been relegated to foreign policy history, from which recent administrations have sought to distance themselves. But more than a decade after then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, under former President Barack Obama, announced the "era of Monroe Doctrine is over," Trump is now embracing it.
In his remarks on Jan. 3, the president cast the doctrine as a continuing tenet of U.S. foreign policy, and said the operation that ousted Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro not only abides by it, but goes a step further. Trump alleged the country was "hosting foreign adversaries" and "acquiring offensive weapons" and accused Venezuela of seizing and selling American oil assets.
following US military actions in Venezuela, at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, on January 3, 2025.
The U.S. "successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolás Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
" style=padding-bottom:56%>President Donald Trump, alongside (L/R), CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, speaks to the press following US military actions in Venezuela, at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, on January 3, 2025.
The U.S. "successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolás Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
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President Donald Trump, alongside (L/R), CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, speaks to the press following US military actions in Venezuela, at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, on January 3, 2025.
The U.S. "successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolás Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
">President Donald Trump, alongside (L/R), CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, speaks to the press following US military actions in Venezuela, at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, on January 3, 2025.
The U.S. "successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolás Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
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1 / 5President Trump addresses the nation after military action in Venezuela
President Donald Trump, alongside (L/R), CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, speaks to the press following US military actions in Venezuela, at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, on January 3, 2025.
The U.S. "successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolás Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
"All of these actions were in gross violation of the core principles of American foreign policy, dating back more than two centuries," Trump said. "All the way back, dated to the Monroe doctrines. And the Monroe Doctrine is a big deal, but we've superseded it by a lot, by a real lot. They now call it the Donroe doctrine."
What is the Monroe Doctrine? Or is it the "Donroe Doctrine"?
The Monroe Doctrine, named after its architect former President James Monroe in 1823, is one of the most consequential U.S. foreign policy agendas in the 19th century. It began as a largely symbolic document that stated American opposition to new or expanding European involvement in the Americas, after centuries of colonial activity in the region. It would go on to become a significant element of U.S. foreign policy toward the region for decades, though it has been increasingly criticized by academics and policy makers for being used to justify interventions in Latin America.
More: Mapping US attacks in Venezuela: Timeline of Nicolás Maduro's capture
The doctrine outlined how the U.S. government considered South and Central America a strategic "backyard" seen as a region that should fall to American influence, rather than European.
The doctrine's ethos continued to evolve through later administrations. In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt added the so-called "Roosevelt Corollary," which said the U.S. has a right to intervene in the Americas under certain circumstances. It declared that the U.S. government could "exercise international police power" to end what Roosevelt called "chronic unrest or wrongdoing" in the Western Hemisphere.
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro gestures next to his wife Cilia Flores during his arrival for a special session of the National Constituent Assembly to present his annual state of the nation in Caracas, Venezuela, January 14, 2019.
According to the Department of State's Office of the Historian, it served as justification for U.S. intervention in Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. U.S. Marines were sent into Santo Domingo in 1904, Nicaragua in 1911, and Haiti in 1915, "ostensibly to keep the Europeans out," the National Archives says.
In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt renounced interventionism and established his "Good Neighbor" policy within the Western Hemisphere, seen as an end to the height of Monroe Doctrine foreign policy.
More: America First? What Trump's startling arrest of Maduro tells us.
Though U.S. intervention in Central and South America occurred long before the Monroe Doctrine, interpretations of the document underpinned several significant U.S. projects and actions in the region, from the building of the Panama Canal to the Cold War years. It also significantly strained relationships with various Latin American countries for many decades, and has remained a key document in understanding both historic and contemporary U.S. foreign policy in the region.
Trump embraces Monroe Doctrine in second administration
President Donald Trump speaks as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth looks at him during a press conference following a U.S. strike on Venezuela where President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured, from Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., January 3, 2026.
The Jan. 3 remarks were not the first time Trump expressed a desire to return to a foreign policy position inspired by the centuries-old doctrine. The administration in November released its renewed national security strategy, explicitly modeling its stance toward the Western Hemisphere after the Monroe Doctrine, which it will "reassert and reinforce" to "restore American preeminence."
He called it the "Trump Corollary."
"We sort of forgot about it," Trump said of the Monroe Doctrine. "It was very important, but we forgot about it. We don't forget about it anymore. Under our new national security strategy, American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again."
Kathryn Palmer is a politics reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at [email protected] and on X @KathrynPlmr. Sign up for her daily politics newsletter here.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump calls Monroe Doctrine the 'Donroe Doctrine' after Venezuela raid
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