How Trump is firing first shots of ‘America First world order’ as next target after Maduro’s capture could fall in days

DONALD Trump is ready to unleash the full force of US power as he eyes up a “hitlist” of targets to create a new world order, experts say.

After the extraordinary capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the US president issued a swathe of stark warnings against countries within America’s sphere of influence.

Trump has marked up Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, Greenland and Iran as targets after the opening salvo on Venezuela – and is preparing for another hit soon, experts fear.

In a veiled warning, the US president told reporters this week: “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it. Let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days.”

Retired US army general Ben Hodges told The Sun: “Trump thinks we got screwed over by the international order after World War II. He’s looking at all of this in terms of a deal. His philosophy is… ‘this is ours’.”

Reviving the Monroe Doctrine – spun as the “Donroe Doctrine” – Trump’s threats have been described as an attempt to create an American “empire”, in a bold return to 18th century world order.

Hodges, who formerly commanded US Army Europe, said: “I don’t know what kind of timeline they’re working on. But I cannot dismiss it like I would have last week. I can absolutely not assume this is a bluff.

“He captured two Russian flagged oil tankers this week – that didn’t just happen, that has been in the works for days.”  Trump’s threats come days after the US snatched Venezuelan despot Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from Caracas.

Operation Absolute Resolve unfolded under the cover of darkness when some 150 military aircraft, including fighter jets, bombers and reconnaissance planes, took off from 20 military bases and Navy ships.

In a series of fast-moving events, the capital was rocked by explosions.  Former Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis told The Sun Trump is ready to use “lethal military power” to get what he wants.

He said: “When you have a success like President Trump did in Venezuela, there is this blood in the water effect, like with a shark. It becomes a frenzy, they just start grabbing everything.

He added: “Trump has made it clear he wants complete control over the country of Venezuela and its ability to produce oil.  “It sets a precedent of, ‘we will take what we want and I’ll kill whoever I need to to get it’.

“Now we’re already saying we need to go into Colombia, into Greenland, strangle Cuba and even Mexico is getting caught in the cross hairs.”  Lt Davis described America’s weekend operation in Venezuela as “flawless”, incurring “hardly any cost”.

He said: “And then in the UK, Keir Starmer… muttered and stumbled. And some of the other European leaders, there’s really silence on this.”  Just hours after the operation, Trump turned to Venezuela’s neighbours to the West, Colombia, and warned of possible military action.

He said: “Colombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he’s not going to be doing it very long.”

Asked if military action was an option, he replied: “It sounds good to me.”  Colombian President Gustavo Petro hit back, goading Trump to “come get me”.  Petro has since said he considers US military intervention a “real threat”, citing historic land grabs from the US like Panama.

A former member of the M19 guerrilla group, Petro said he would himself fight to defend Colombia.  He said: “I swore not to touch a weapon again … but for the homeland I will take up arms again.”

He referred to Colombia’s track record of responding to “large armies” throughout history, despite being dwarfed in defences.  He said: “Instead, we rely on the masses, our mountains, and our jungles, as we always have.”

Colombia is home to huge oil reserves and is a major producer of gold, silver, emeralds, platinum and coal.  It is also a key hub for the region’s drug trade – most notably cocaine.

Cuba – longstanding Venezuelan allies – has also been singled out by Trump.  But, he said, military intervention won’t be needed because the state is “ready to fall” on its own.

Trump said: “Cuba now has no income. They got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil. They’re not getting any of it. Cuba literally is ready to fall.”  While militarily difficult, Hodges identified Cuba as a “plausible target”.

He said: “Secretary Rubio would be driving this as a son of Cuban refugees, and by the significant political power of Cuban Americans in the state of Florida – a critical state in US politics.

“Trump would love to be the guy that finally liberated Cuba. JFK didn’t do it, Regan didn’t do it and Obama didn’t do it.”  Closer to home, Trump has fired threats of imminent drone strikes in Mexico to attack the cartels.

He said: “We are gonna start now hitting land with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico, it’s very sad to watch what’s happened to the country.”  The US president has persistently accused Mexico of not doing enough to clamp down on drug cartels, saying “we’re going to have to do something”.

He has been locked in a standoff with Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, who has repeatedly rejected US intervention.

Asserting US power across Latin America, Trump has revived policies crucial to American intervention in the Western Hemisphere throughout the 19th century – the Monroe Doctrine and Roosevelt Corollary.

The approach was announced in the US national security strategy in November last year, as a “Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine”.  Monroe warned external powers against encroaching on Americas backyard – while Roosevelt advised the use of military force to guarantee outcomes over legal texts.

Combining the two, Trump seeks to dominate the region through military, economic and political means in a fresh take on gunboat diplomacy.  Trump said on Sunday: “We are in the business of having countries around us that are viable and successful and where the oil is allowed to freely come out.

“American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.”  Meanwhile, Trump continues to step up threats on the mineral-rich Greenland, dubbing the Danish territory a “national security priority”.

Denmark confirmed its troops will counter-attack an invasion without awaiting orders.  Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he “stands” with Denmark after Trump’s threats of annexation adding that “only Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark will decide its future”.

But White House deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser Stephen Miller argued “nobody’s gonna fight” America over the future of Greenland.  Politics professor Anthony Glees told The Sun, if Trump storms Greenland with force, he could take it “in 24 hours”, in the “world’s shortest war”.

But Lt Davis, whose military career spanned four deployments including Afghanistan and Iraq, said direct military action in the territory would cross a “red line” in European relations.  He said: “There’s not a lot of defensive forces on there, so it wouldn’t be hard to take from a military perspective, but it would be massive politically to make that move.

“Will Trump risk going into military conflict and killing not just some people in the Caribbean that we don’t know anything about but Europeans?  “I think that would cross a red line that even the elites in Europe would not stand passive behind.”

While Trump hones in on targets to establish his new “America First” world order, the global landscape in the aftermath of the Venezuela operation hangs in the balance.

On Monday, a handcuffed and limping Maduro appeared in a US courtroom faced with federal charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine importation conspiracy.

The US will “run the country” until a transition could be arranged, Trump announced, adding that American oil companies will move back into the region.

The president also left open the possibility of further US strikes in Venezuela if the interim leadership and President Delcy Rodriguez does not comply with his demands.

Just this week US forces seized three shadow tankers alleged to be carrying sanctioned oil, in a series of dramatic raids.  Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, making up the countries main source of revenue.

It is a crucial energy partner for Russia, and China remains its biggest customer.  Both Beijing and Moscow, who formed an axis against US dominance, voiced their fury after Maduro was cuffed and dragged across the Americas to stand trial.

Thinktank Chatham House said Trumps strike will be used as a “pretext” for Russian President Vladimir Putin to double down on his aggression in Ukraine.

The Chinese foreign ministry said the US special forces operation was “in clear violation of international law and the basic norms in international relations”.

They then struck out with a damning four-word demand aimed at Trump: “Release them at once.”  Over in the Middle East, tensions are also flaring as Trump eyes up military action in Iran claiming the US is “locked and loaded”.

The region has been rocked by its biggest protests in years after the rial crashed to record lows, spiking inflation.  Clashes have erupted across at least 17 of Iran’s 31 provinces, with reports estimating 36 people have been killed.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said: “If Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protestors, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”

He later declared the US will “start shooting” if Iran’s tyrannical regime continues to murder protesters.  Iran responded with equal fire – warning US intervention would cause chaos in the Middle East.

Trumps threats come just seven months after US bombers struck Iranian nuclear facilities.  In retaliation, Iran launched a missile attack on a major US military base in Qatar.

Whilst Trump has ramped up his rhetoric in recent weeks, the president has raised potential invasions and interventions before.  Four days into his second administration, Don sparked a frenzy over Panama’s sovereignty when he vowed to reclaim the canal.

The Panama Canal handles 5 per cent of global trade, but Trump claimed the US was being overcharged due to Chinese influence, and threatened to take the key trading route back by force.  America’s former military presence in Panama ended in 1999.

It was during this first week in office that Trump first raised a snatch of Greenland, throwing Denmark into crisis mode.  Trump has also repeatedly asserted that it would be in Canada’s interest to become America’s 51st state.

If Trump is to follow through with his threats, America could be fighting conflicts on multiple fronts across the globe, experts say.  Lt Davis said: “For Afghanistan, which was just the Taliban insurgency, we had to have 140,000 active US and NATO troops on the ground.

“And it was some 200,000 during the insurgency in Iraq. Now you’re talking jungles. Now you’re talking about something like Vietnam.  “We had half a million there. So you’re not going to fight this on the cheap.”

Trump’s success with Venezuela relied on total surprise and intricate planning.  Lt Davis warned that it could be difficult to replicate, with the US risking both financial and military losses.

During the raid on January 2, parts of Caracas suffered electricity outages.  President Trump told a press conference: “It was dark, the lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have.”

It is not yet known how this was achieved, but Lt Davis believes “by all the evidence here, we had some insider help”.  He added: “That was a big risk we took, but it worked out. Whatever we did, whoever we worked with, we could fly 150 aircraft in – including a lot of slow movers – without getting hit.  “You can’t do that again, almost certainly, because you played that card, and you’re not going to get it again.”