Who’s next after Maduro? Trump’s comments spur anxieties about his plans for Greenland and Cuba

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after the audacious US military operation in Venezuela, President Donald Trump on Sunday renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of US security interests, while his top diplomat declared the communist government in Cuba is “in a lot of trouble.”

The comments from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the ouster of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro underscore that the US administration is serious about taking a more expansive role in the Western Hemisphere.

With thinly veiled threats, Trump is rattling hemispheric friends and foes alike, spurring a pointed question around the globe: Who’s next?

“It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida.

“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

Asked during an interview with The Atlantic earlier on Sunday what the US-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know.”

Trump, in his administration’s National Security Strategy published last month, laid out restoring “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a central guidepost for his second go-around in the White House.

Trump has also pointed to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which rejects European colonialism, as well as the Roosevelt Corollary — a justification invoked by the US in supporting Panama’s secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the US — as he’s made his case for an assertive approach to American neighbors and beyond.

Trump has even quipped that some now refer to the fifth US president’s foundational document as the “Don-roe Doctrine.”

Saturday’s dead-of-night operation by US forces in Caracas and Trump’s comments on Sunday heightened concerns in Denmark, which has jurisdiction over the vast mineral-rich island of Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a statement that Trump has “no right to annex” the territory.

She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the United States, a fellow member of NATO, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.