Trump Video Recasts Monroe Doctrine as Explicit US Hegemony in the Americas

In a recent State Department tweet, a short video traced the evolution of the Monroe Doctrine from its 1823 origins through the Spanish-American War, the Roosevelt Corollary, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, culminating in the January seizure of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. The film casts Donald Trump as the doctrine’s "latest defender" and bluntly asserts that American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be contested.

Historically framed as a shield against European colonization, the doctrine is now presented openly as a tool of U.S. hegemony. Brazil’s chief foreign-policy adviser, Celso Amorim, told the Brazilian Congress that the video undermines the sovereignty of all Latin American states and linked it to Washington’s recent terrorist labeling of Brazilian criminal factions. Critics, including Rep. Delia Ramirez, denounced the video as imperialist propaganda that fuels instability and poverty across the region. The administration’s earlier “Trump Corollary” in its National Security Strategy pledged to block non-hemispheric rivals, especially China, from gaining footholds in the Americas, a stance reflected in operations such as "Operation Absolute Resolve" and expanding sanctions on Cuba.