You may have heard something about the Monroe or Don-roe Doctrine. What is that?
So James Monroe was our fifth president, and in 1823, he told Congress about an idea he had that would later be called the Monroe Doctrine.
It’s that the US has the national right to wield influence over the Western Hemisphere, and if Europe stays out of our hemisphere, we will stay out of their eastern one. This doctrine influenced the next 200 years of American foreign policy, and later, Teddy Roosevelt added his Roosevelt Corollary, which says that the US doesn’t just have the right to wield influence, we also get to involve ourselves in the affairs of other countries in our hemisphere, specifically Latin America.
Now the Monroe Doctrine in November, the president added the Trump Corollary, which says that the Western Hemisphere is still America’s neighborhood, and we will use our military power to ensure that other countries in it are stable and well governed to discourage mass migration. We’ll also fight drug traffickers and ensure America has access to key strategic locations at the Panama Canal and oil reserves and mines.
And Trump’s doing that—from tariffs on Nicaragua to a bailout of Argentina to sending prisoners to El Salvador, some of whom are not criminals, to the actions in Venezuela, which are a warning shot to Mexico, Cuba and Colombia. In short, he wants to keep Latin America acquiescing to us and enriching us while keeping Russia and China at bay.
Think of it not as America First, but Americas First, but really America First.
Ben Sheehan is the bestselling author of What Does the Constitution Actually Say? A Non-Boring Guide to How Our Democracy Is Supposed to Work. Make sure to stay connected with Ben on his Substack Politics Made Easy.
