The Trump administration has been doing what centuries of US ruling elites have carefully avoided by dropping pretences of being a colonial power.
In a five-minute video posted by the State Department, narrated by U.S. Ambassador to Panama Kevin Marino Cabrera, the U.S. government openly celebrates its “dominance” over the Western Hemisphere and adds that it “will never be questioned again.”
The Monroe Doctrine has shaped U.S. foreign policy for over two centuries.
American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again. pic.twitter.com/hsoGS17gqV
— Department of State (@StateDept) August 11, 2026
It concludes:
Over two centuries, Monroe’s declaration had shaped US foreign policy across administrations and throughout fundamentally different geopolitical eras. What began as a warning to European powers evolved into a framework for regional dominance, one that remains the cornerstone of American strategy in the hemisphere today.
Trump administration — Monroe Doctrine and other events
The history in the video starts in 1823, narrated by the current US Ambassador to Panama, Kevin Marino Cabrera. On December 2, 1823, President James Monroe stood before Congress and delivered a declaration. The American continents, he said, were:
henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonisation by any European powers.
In 1904, Theodore Roosevelt declared that if any Latin American nation fell into chaos, the U.S. would step in and “manage.” In 1903, the US backed Panamanian independence to secure the Panama Canal, it says.
Then it touts driving the Soviet Union out of the Americas:
When Soviet missiles were discovered in Cuba in 1962, Kennedy didn’t need to invent a new framework. He simply invoked the doctrine. The weapons had to go. Thirteen days of the most dangerous standoff in human history ended with the Soviets backing down and removing the missiles from Cuba. Reagan applied the same logic to justify opposition to Soviet-backed Sandinista regimes in Nicaragua and other Marxist groups, arguing that ideological threats require the same response as military ones.
In the modern era, the video claims the doctrine has found its “latest champion” in President Trump and celebrates the kidnapping of Maduro.
Reactions
US Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez called it “a cheap piece of imperialist propaganda” and noted that the Monroe Doctrine’s actual legacy is “political instability, deep poverty, extreme migration, and colonialism throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.”
What a cheap piece of imperialist propaganda…
The Monroe Doctrine’s legacy is political instability, deep poverty, extreme migration, and colonialism throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
Despite what warmongers want you to believe, the Monroe Doctrine undermines the… https://t.co/LzGLjYxg3K
— Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez (@repdeliaramirez) August 11, 2026
Journalist Glenn Diesen saw the honesty in it, noting that the State Department had finally settled the debate over whether the Monroe Doctrine was really about US domination.
This tweet by the State Department provides an answer to the debate over whether the Monroe Doctrine was about U.S. domination. https://t.co/rgMpN8r4kp
— Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) August 12, 2026
Alonso Gurmendi, an international relations scholar, noted that the Trump era’s obsession with selling “greatness” to a struggling empire has finally forced Washington to be honest about what it is, vindicating 200 years of Latin American anti-imperial thought.
One of the advantages of the Trump era is it is so concerned with selling “greatness” to the depressed & struggling population of a declining empire that it is very honest about what that empire is, vindicating 200 years of LatAm anti-imperial thought in ways others always denied https://t.co/dU4NXKLYWY
— Alonso Gurmendi (@Alonso_GD) August 12, 2026
Journalist Ollie Vargas said that at least now liberals will have to stop pretending that the US empire cares about humanitarianism.
Lots of liberal think tankers/journalists are actually upset about this today. They’ve spent their lives claiming that the US cares about freedom, humanitarianism, or feminism or whatever. Now Trump just debunks it all.
This is good. It confirms what we’ve always said. https://t.co/UspMoHEy9S
— Ollie Vargas (@Ollie_Vargas_) August 11, 2026
He said:
The US claims imperial sovereignty over Latin America. Therefore, it is the primary opponent of Latin American independence, self-determination, and development. This is basic stuff. Now we don’t have to argue with liberals about it, region can focus on how to combat it.
By Nandita Lal
