Trump's Revival of the Monroe Doctrine Is Succeeding, and Cuba May Be Next
Source: https://www.facebook.com/americanspectator/. "The Panama Canal, Venezuela, Greenland: Is Cuba Next? | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics." September 24, 2026. spectator.org
The Gist
The author argues that Trump's aggressive hemispheric foreign policy—covering Panama, Venezuela, and now Greenland—amounts to a successful revival of the old Monroe Doctrine, proving skeptics wrong. Based on this winning streak and Trump's tough UN speech naming Cuba as a threat, the author predicts Cuba's communist government could be the next target for U.S.-driven regime change.
Conclusion
President Trump has successfully revived the Monroe Doctrine as an effective hemispheric security strategy, and Cuba's communist regime is likely the next target for U.S. pressure aimed at regime change.
Premises
- Trump has already achieved concrete successes applying the Monroe Doctrine: a deal with Panama that ended growing Chinese influence in the canal region, a coup in Venezuela that replaced a pro-China regime with a U.S. ally and secured U.S. access to Venezuelan oil reserves, and a new security agreement with Greenland/Denmark expanding U.S. military presence there.
- These moves were praised by the affected countries' own leaders (Denmark's and Greenland's prime ministers), suggesting genuine cooperative success rather than imposed imperialism.
- Critics and foreign policy 'experts' (Kerry, Rubin, Kilgore, Patrick) who dismissed the Monroe Doctrine as obsolete or dangerous have been proven wrong by these concrete outcomes.
- Trump explicitly declared at the UN that the U.S. will not permit threats to gain a foothold anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, using military force if necessary, and specifically named Cuba as a 'failed state' and threat.
- Trump has a track record of following through on foreign policy threats where previous presidents failed to act, as demonstrated by his decisive action against Iran's nuclear program in 2025-2026, unlike prior administrations that only made empty pledges regarding both Iran and Cuba.
- Cuba has been a persistent U.S. adversary since 1959, and previous attempts to address it (Bay of Pigs, assassination attempts) were half-hearted failures, implying that a more resolute approach like Trump's could succeed where others didn't.
Assumptions
- A pattern of two or three successful interventions (Panama, Venezuela, Greenland) reliably predicts continued success in a fourth case (Cuba).
- U.S. control over resources (oil in Venezuela) and military expansion (Greenland) constitute legitimate security successes rather than exploitative outcomes.
- Trump's Iran policy was itself successful and comparable in relevant ways to the Cuba situation.
- Regime change in Cuba, if it occurs, would naturally result in a pro-U.S. successor government, as it purportedly did in Venezuela.
- The praise from foreign leaders (Denmark, Greenland) reflects genuine strategic alignment rather than diplomatic necessity given U.S. power asymmetry.
- Historical American strategic doctrine (Monroe Doctrine) remains applicable and beneficial in a vastly different 21st-century geopolitical context.