What The Donroe Doctrine Means For The Ukraine War

What The Donroe Doctrine Means For The Ukraine War

I. Rebranding the Global Dynamic

On January 3, 2026, the era of global proxy wars officially ended, and the age of Colonial Isolationism began. While the world watched in shock as a surgical U.S. strike force zipped into Caracas to snatch Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores in under an hour, the President was already rebranding 200 years of American foreign policy. "The Monroe Doctrine is a big deal. But we've superseded it by a lot. By a real lot. They now call it the Donroe Doctrine," Trump declared at his Saturday news conference. This is an Under New Management sign for the entire Western Hemisphere, signaling that the U.S. is now the manager of its own domain. Donald Trump effectively changed the world dynamic from the comfort of Mar-a-Lago.

II. The Backyard Mandate and the Capture of Caracas

The Donroe Doctrine is the formalization of a "Fortress Americas" model. Secretary of State Marco Rubio established the administration’s stance: "We are not going to allow it in our backyard. If you are focused on America and America First, you start with your own hemisphere, where we live."

The operation to take Maduro was a direct defeat of foreign military hardware. During the strike, the U.S. military successfully suppressed and destroyed advanced Chinese-made defense radar systems and Russian S-300VM, Pantsir, and Buk-M2 missile systems. Crucially, a Chinese envoy was present in Caracas during the strike, underscoring that the U.S. was willing to risk direct confrontation with Eastern powers to secure its home region. Trump has stated that the United States is now running Venezuela and will continue to do so until such time as elections can be held. The end goal is to install a government that is completely loyal to Washington D.C.

III. Warming the Pipes and the Resource Reclamation

The capture of Maduro was the opening bell for a massive resource reclamation project. For years, the socialist idiocracy in Venezuela allowed the world’s largest oil reserves to rot. Because Venezuelan crude is heavy sour—essentially liquid tar—the infrastructure requires constant heat to flow. When the maintenance stopped, the pipes cooled, and production plummeted from 3.5 million barrels a day to less than a million.

The Trump administration isn't just running Venezuela; they are fixing the plumbing. As Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted, U.S. oil majors are moving in to warm the pipes and unlock that 3.5-million-barrel capacity. The goal is a closed-loop fortress:

The Oil: Shipped directly across the Gulf to Texas refineries designed for heavy sour crude.

The Feedstocks: No more shipping sulfur and naphtha to China to buy back finished plastics. The U.S. will reshore its chemical industry, using Venezuelan base feedstocks to manufacture goods in a modern, more environmentally sensitive way than China has been doing since World War II.

The Debt: This is a legally defensible collection on the $13 billion owed to American companies since the Chavista nationalizations. Attorney General Pam Bondi has unsealed indictments charging Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, with narco-terrorism, providing the framework to treat these Venezuelan assets and resources as narco-state seizures.

IV. The Greenland Pivot and the Rare Earth Red Herring

The mineral pivot toward Greenland is the northern anchor of this new map. Just hours after the Venezuela strike, Katie Miller, wife of Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, posted an image on X of Greenland with the American Stars and Stripes superimposed on it and a single word: "SOON." Trump’s primary excuse for this move is that the U.S. and Denmark cannot effectively monitor the passage of Russian and Chinese ships through the Summer Strait.

By eyeing Greenland, the U.S. is seeking a rare earth supply in its own backyard. The recent talk of mineral wealth in Ukraine was a red herring to begin with; there were no commercially viable rare earth deposits in the sections of Ukraine not already annexed or controlled by Russia. The U.S. is simply pivoting to a resource base it can actually secure.

V. The Proxy War Liquidation and the Alaska Summit

This transition marks the end of a policy the U.S. explicitly chose and funded since 2014. The U.S. backed the Maidan Revolution, and within six weeks Hunter Biden was hired by Burisma. This was followed by eight years of a bloody U.S.-funded proxy war along the Donbas until Putin invaded and demilitarized the Ukraine in only 18 days, destroying all of the U.S. military equipment. The U.S. chose to re-militarize the Ukraine, specifically voting to flow billions of more dollars worth of equipment in so that they would fight Russia for us. Because we funded the proxy war and gave them all that equipment with no strings attached, any attempt to "claw back" money in any form is ridiculous.

Annexing Venezuela effectively supersedes the settlement discussed a year ago in Alaska. At the Alaska Summit in August 2025, Putin demanded the return of the $300 billion in frozen Russian assets, pulling out all U.S. military, demilitarizing the Ukraine, and providing a binding guarantee that the Ukraine would never join the EU or NATO. In addition the Russians wanted a 100km demilitarized border zone along the annexed Russian territories in the South and international recognition of the new Russian territory that extends from the Donbas to the Crimea.

Because Secretary Marco Rubio established that the U.S. will no longer tolerate foreign assets in its "backyard," and because the U.S. decimated Russian hardware in Caracas, the original Alaska offer is likely off the table now. The era of Spheres of Influence is now in effect. Russia doesn’t need the 300 billion back, they have lots of natural resources, what they need is to end the Ukraine War, so now they will not settle for anything less than Zelensky being removed and a pro-Russian government replacing him. Putin will now likely assert control over the entire Ukraine, and will control the government in Kyiv to ensure that the next administration there is completely loyal to Russia. Just like the United States will run and control Venezuela to ensure that the next democratically elected leader is loyal to the United States. Arresting Maduro also gives Putin the green light to extract Zelensky and to perp walk him in Moscow, mirroring the successful Caracas operation of Maduro, as both men suspended Democratic elections and seized power. If the U.S. gets to control Venezuela because it is in our sphere of influence then Russia definitely gets to control the Ukraine, all of it.

VI. Conclusion: Expansion of the Backyard

The Donroe Doctrine does not stop at the Venezuelan border. Trump has warned that Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico are all subject to this new "law enforcement" cleanup if they continue to facilitate foreign interests or drug flows. The strategy is simple: Ours is ours. The U.S. has secured the oil in the South, has its eyes on the minerals in the North in Greenland, and has built a fort around its own hemisphere. Trump has made it clear that the U.S. will control and run Venezuela until elections produce a leadership that remains entirely loyal to Washington D.C., as apparently Vladimir Putin is now cleared to do with the Ukraine.