All posts tagged: Hemisphere

Trump looks to turn attention to Western Hemisphere, at least for a moment, at a regional summit

Trump looks to turn attention to Western Hemisphere, at least for a moment, at a regional summit

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media after arriving in Corpus Christi, Texas, U.S., Feb. 27, 2026. Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters President Donald Trump is set to gather with Latin American leaders on Saturday at his Miami-area golf club as his administration looks to demonstrate that it’s still committed to sharpening the U.S. foreign policy focus on the Western Hemisphere, even as it deals with five-alarm crises around the globe. The gathering, which the White House is calling the “Shield of the Americas” summit, comes just two months after Trump ordered an audacious U.S. military operation to capture Venezuela’s then-president, Nicolás Maduro, and whisk him and his wife to the United States to face drug conspiracy charges. Looming even larger is Trump’s decision to join with Israel to launch a war on Iran one week ago, a conflict that has left hundreds dead, convulsed global markets and unsettled the broader Middle East. He started Saturday with a social media post warning that more Iranian officials would become targets in the war and that strikes …

Trump turns attention to Western Hemisphere at Americas summit : NPR

Trump turns attention to Western Hemisphere at Americas summit : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump speaks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a roundtable discussion on college sports in the East Room of the White House, Friday, March 6, 2026, in Washington. Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP hide caption toggle caption Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP DORAL, Fla. — President Donald Trump is set to gather with Latin American leaders on Saturday at his Miami-area golf club as his administration looks to demonstrate it’s still committed to sharpening U.S. foreign policy focus on the Western Hemisphere even as it deals with five-alarm crises around the globe. The gathering, dubbed the “Shield of the Americas” summit, comes just two months after Trump ordered an audacious U.S. military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and whisk him and his wife to the U.S. to face drug conspiracy charges. Looming even larger is Trump’s decision to join with Israel to launch a war on Iran one week ago, a conflict that’s already left hundreds dead, convulsed global markets and unsettled the broader Middle East. Trump’s time with the Latin American leaders will …

Whose Hemisphere? | Fintan O’Toole

Whose Hemisphere? | Fintan O’Toole

Published by José Betancourt

In 2018, two years after Donald Trump was first elected president, Vintage Books reissued Fletcher Knebel’s Night of Camp David, a political thriller published in 1965. Its renewed appeal was summed up in the stark tagline on the cover: “What would happen if the president of the USA went stark-raving mad?” In the novel, a young senator who has been chosen by the incumbent president, Mark Hollenbach, to be his running mate for reelection comes to realize that the man in the Oval Office has gone quietly crazy. In Trump’s first term, the story seemed to resonate with debates about his erratic behavior and the possibility that he could be deposed. What attracted less attention, however, was the particular form the president’s madness takes in the novel. He shows signs of paranoia and authoritarian tendencies, hoping to introduce a law allowing him to have all phone calls recorded and stored in a giant bank of computers. But the most incontrovertible symptom of his insanity is the grand scheme confided to the young senator: “I want …

US Forces Seize Sixth Tanker In Western Hemisphere As Trump Targets Dark Fleet

US Forces Seize Sixth Tanker In Western Hemisphere As Trump Targets Dark Fleet

Published by Jenni Sidey

President Trump’s race to secure the Western Hemisphere, in a foreign policy move called gunboat diplomacy, off the coast of Venezuela to dismantle and disrupt a dark-fleet tanker network, has now resulted in a sixth oil tanker being seized by U.S. forces in the Caribbean. The Wall Street Journal reports that the dark-fleet tanker was seized in the U.S. Southern Command Area of Responsibility, covering Central and South America and the Caribbean. News details are emerging.  Through #OpSouthernSpear, the Department of War is unwavering in its mission to crush illicit activity in the Western Hemisphere in partnership with @USCG through @DHSgov and @TheJusticeDept. In another pre-dawn action, Marines and Sailors from Joint Task Force Southern Spear,… pic.twitter.com/brxO9xXUu3 — U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) January 15, 2026 “The cargo-empty US-sanctioned Aframax tanker VERONICA (9256860) was last seen in Venezuela on 2026-01-03 as she departed Amuay. She has directly exported Iranian oil 10 times, as well as received Iranian oil 5x via STS and Venezuelan 2x. This lady’s shady career began in 2020,” Tanker Trackers wrote on X.  …

With the Venezuela operation, Marco Rubio is at the heart of reshaping the ‘Western Hemisphere’

With the Venezuela operation, Marco Rubio is at the heart of reshaping the ‘Western Hemisphere’

Published by Sam Flores

In this photo released by the White House, Donald Trump speaks with CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (center), while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth monitors US military operations in Venezuela from his computer, At Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida, January 3, 2026. MOLLY RILEY/MAISON BLANCHE VIA AP For the past three days, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been omnipresent on television screens. Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, has remained out of sight, relegated to posting messages on social media. The rivalry – officially amicable – between the two men, both contenders to lead the MAGA movement in the future, reached a major turning point with the US military operation in Venezuela in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, January 3. Just hours later, Rubio stood alongside Donald Trump to comment on the capture of President Nicolas Maduro. Disciplined and careful in his statements, Rubio appeared on major Sunday political shows the following day. “This was not an invasion,” he said on ABC. “We didn’t occupy a country.” On CBS, Rubio dismissed …

Trump’s doctrine for the Western Hemisphere is taking real shape.

Trump’s doctrine for the Western Hemisphere is taking real shape.

Published by Sam Flores

In the early days of 2025, the New York Post splashed President Donald Trump, smirking before an annotated classroom map of the Western Hemisphere, across a front page spanned by the headline: “The Donroe Doctrine.” On the map, Trump had laid claim to Canada as the “51st state,” recast Greenland as “our land,” rebranded the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” and reasserted U.S. control over the Panama Canal. Source link