President Trump’s capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro has become a pivotal moment in U.S. foreign policy, with the administration signaling a dramatic return to assertive American dominance in the Western Hemisphere.

“American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again,” Trump declared following the audacious raid that led to Maduro and his wife being transported to the United States to face federal drug trafficking charges.

In the days since the operation, Trump and his administration have amplified this message of American preeminence, issuing warnings to several countries in the region. The president’s rhetoric evokes the muscular foreign policy approach of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when U.S. presidents deployed military forces across the Caribbean, Central America, and beyond for territorial and resource acquisitions.

“There’s been periods, Vietnam and Iraq, which have evoked questions about a return to American imperialism, but the U.S. leaders’ messages in those periods were cloaked in talk of democracy,” said Edward Frantz, a historian at the University of Indianapolis. “The way Trump is talking about it is something we haven’t seen in a very long time.”

The president’s tough talk has extended to allies and adversaries alike. He renewed calls for the U.S. to take over Greenland from Denmark, citing national security concerns. This prompted a sharp response from Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who warned that such action “would mark the undoing” of NATO.

“If the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2.

Mexico has also faced Trump’s pressure, with the president insisting America’s southern neighbor must “get their act together” in fighting drug cartels. He further warned that longtime U.S. adversary Cuba is “going down” now that Maduro—who provided deeply discounted oil to the economically isolated Havana government—has been deposed.

Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine producer, has reason for concern after Trump suggested that a military operation there “sounds good to me.” This statement has heightened anxiety across Latin America about potential U.S. interventions.

Venezuela itself faces an uncertain future under interim President Delcy Rodríguez, whom Trump has threatened with “an outcome worse than Maduro’s” if she doesn’t “do what’s right.” The president has made explicit his expectation that Caracas will open its vast oil reserves to U.S. energy companies.

“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure—the oil infrastructure—and start making money for the country,” Trump stated.

The Venezuela incursion has divided Latin American opinion largely along political lines. Trump-aligned leaders from the right have generally applauded Maduro’s ouster, while others have condemned it as a violation of sovereignty principles.

Trump’s administration appears to be reviving the Monroe Doctrine, a foundational U.S. foreign policy document originally aimed at opposing European interference in the Western Hemisphere. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reinforced this position on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” stating: “This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live—and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors and rivals of the United States.”

The contradiction in Trump’s foreign policy approach was evident in the recently released National Security Strategy. While asserting a “predisposition to non-interventionism,” the document simultaneously emphasized the need “to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere.”

The international community has responded with alarm. At an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting, Colombian Ambassador Leonor Zalabata Torres said the raid in Venezuela was reminiscent of “the worst interference in our area in the past.”

“Democracy cannot be defended or promoted through violence and coercion, and it cannot be superseded, either, by economic interests,” she stated.

Democratic lawmakers have expressed concern that Trump’s actions might embolden other world leaders with territorial ambitions. “What the president’s done in this case has essentially given Putin and Xi Jinping a hall pass,” said Senator Angus King in a CNN appearance.

Russia has condemned the U.S. action, with its U.N. envoy Vassily Nebenzia stating the world body “cannot allow the United States to proclaim itself as some kind of a supreme judge” to the world.

As Trump enters the final three years of his second term, his approach to Venezuela may signal a fundamental shift in U.S. foreign policy with far-reaching implications for global power dynamics.