Fresh off the capture of Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump indicated more interventions could be on the horizon. In a series of warnings from Air Force One, the president is signaling that the U.S. raid in Caracas may only be the beginning.
Trump suggested the United States could take action against several Western countries — including Colombia, Cuba, Greenland and Mexico — following a U.S. raid in Caracas that captured Maduro and brought him to New York to face federal drug trafficking and weapons charges.
And on Monday, the State Department went even further with a post on X: “This is OUR Hemisphere,” the agency wrote, “and President Trump will not allow our security to be threatened.”
Targets named: Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, Iran and Greenland
On Sunday, while in Air Force One, Trump said Colombia is “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States,” referring to President Gustavo Petro, adding, “He’s not going to be doing it for very long.”
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Asked whether his administration would carry out an operation targeting Colombia, he replied, “It sounds good to me,” according to The New York Times. He also warned that drugs are “pouring” through Mexico, saying cartels there are “very strong” and noted he had offered U.S. assistance.
Trump also noted that Cuba’s economic stability leaned hard on Venezuelan oil shipments.
“They got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil,” Trump reportedly said. “They’re not getting any of it. Cuba is literally ready to fall, and you have a lot of great Cuban Americans who are going to be happy about this.”
On Iran’s ongoing protests, he said, “If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States.”
Trump again said the U.S. should take control of Greenland “from the standpoint of national security,” while describing the region as being overrun with Russian and Chinese ships.
Swift pushback from Latin America and Europe
The remarks followed questions about whether U.S. actions would extend beyond the Caracas operation. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum dismissed Trump’s wording and emphasized Mexico’s sovereignty.
Petro posted that he is the “supreme commander of the military and police forces of Colombia by constitutional order.”
Trump and Petro have clashed amid heightened U.S. pressure on regional drug trafficking. Trump’s comments on Mexico included that the U.S. may “have to do something,” while stressing he preferred Mexico handle the cartels. Sheinbaum said, “This is just President Trump’s manner of speaking,” and argued that Latin America’s history shows “intervention has never brought democracy.”
In Europe, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Trump to “stop the threats” and said the United States has “no right to annex” Greenland. Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen called the idea “utterly unacceptable.”
What’s next
For now, Trump has not announced specific new operations against Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Iran or Greenland. But his comments set clear conditions for potential moves: whether Mexico escalates its fight against cartels, whether Iran escalates force against protesters and whether the administration broadens its pressure campaign after Maduro’s capture.
