Power play

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Politics U.S.

By James Oliphant, national political correspondent

Like the real estate developer he once was, Donald Trump views the world through the lens of assets to acquire. Where others might see sovereign nations, he sees opportunity.

Expansion seems to be on the White House's mind these days. Trump's high-risk incursion into Venezuela, one that resulted in its leader, Nicolas Maduro, being whisked to jail in the United States, has renewed worries among both allies and foes about where he might turn his focus next. Greenland? Cuba? Colombia?

Latest U.S. politics headlines

American Empire?

Trump, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance, have laid out some of their intentions regarding Venezuela even if the details remain fuzzy. While the country is still being run by its socialist government, the Trump administration maintains that it will dictate the flow of oil from its reserves and attempt to sever its economic ties to rival nations such as China, Russia and Iran.

On Tuesday, Washington announced a deal with Caracas to get access to up to $2 billion worth of Venezuelan crude, a sign that Venezuelan government officials are responding to Trump's demand that they open up to U.S. oil companies or risk more military intervention.

A day later, the U.S. seized two tankers the administration said were being used to help Venezuela evade oil sanctions, one of which bore a Russian flag – a potential escalation of what had been largely a regional matter.

In keeping with what has been dubbed the "Donroe Doctrine" — a play on the 19th century's "Monroe Doctrine," the administration views the Western Hemisphere as its dominion. But Trump's frank admission that the U.S. wants to exploit Venezuela's vast oil resources led to renewed concerns that the president will make a serious attempt to pull Greenland, which has massive untapped mineral reserves and is strategically located, away from its parent, Denmark.

European leaders warn that an aggressive move to seize the island could result in the fracturing or dissolution of NATO. But Trump being Trump, he's done little to ease Euro jitters, although he did reassert his support for the treaty organization. Rubio said he will meet with Denmark's leaders next week but insisted the administration was not backing down in its desire to take over the country.

White House officials have floated the idea of purchasing the territory rather than seizing it militarily, and Reuters reported in an exclusive on Thursday that officials are considering sending payments directly to Greenlanders to persuade them to secede from Denmark and potentially join the United States.

Stephen Miller, the influential White House Deputy Chief of Staff, seemed to outline the White House's viewpoint on its role on the global stage in remarks that some viewed as a veiled threat.

"You can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else," Miller told CNN. "But we live in a world, in the real world, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power."

Some of Trump's recent actions, including not only in Venezuela, but his intervention in Nigeria last month, don't seem to square with his "America First" ethos. But Trump has said he decides what that term means – and typically his supporters follow along. That appears to be the case, so far at least, with his extraction of Maduro.

But the most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll suggests that the issue of Venezuela poses some political risk for the president and his fellow Republicans. Only a third of Americans surveyed said they supported the operation that took out Maduro, which may reflect some nervousness about an extended commitment in the troubled nation.

And then there is the murky issue of the fate of Venezuela itself. Trump has said elections can't be held until the country is stabilized and rebuilt, which he said could take "years." That kind of nation-building is not what his diehard supporters signed up for.

Do you approve of the US military action to remove Maduro?

Follow Reuters/Ipsos polling on the president's approval ratings here.

The view from Pretoria

Reuters this week exclusively reported that the South African government agreed at a meeting with U.S. officials in December not to interfere with the United States' efforts to resettle white South Africans as refugees. The meeting came after Trump's refugee program was disrupted weeks earlier when South African authorities raided a U.S. refugee processing site in Johannesburg, arresting contractors.

Photo of the week

Venezuela's captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores attend their arraignment with defense lawyers Barry Pollack and Mark Donnelly to face U.S. federal charges including narco-terrorism, conspiracy, drug trafficking, money laundering and others, at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., January 5, 2026 in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg

What to watch for

January 19-23: Trump attends World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
February 24: Trump delivers State of the Union address

The who, what and when

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