By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump has made a series of controversial moves that have shaken up the world order, including a military raid that toppled Venezuela’s leader and renewed threats to annex Greenland.
Trump, who campaigned on what was seen as an isolationist “America First” platform, defends his policies as advancing U.S. economic and security interests. But to many experts, his moves echo the actions of 19th-century colonial powers.
Here are some of the Trump administration’s most significant and controversial international actions and the reactions of experts to those moves:
GAZA GOVERNANCE PROPOSAL
In February 2025, Trump said the U.S. will take over Gaza before gradually dropping that position – which was condemned by the U.N. as a proposal for “ethnic cleansing” – over the course of the year.
In another proposal that started a fragile ceasefire in Gaza in October, Trump said Gaza’s temporary governance will be overseen by a so-called “Board of Peace” of which Trump himself will be the chair. Israel and Hamas signed off on that Trump plan and a U.N. Security Council resolution authorized that board to establish a temporary international force in Gaza.
Many experts said it resembled a colonial structure with Trump chairing a board to oversee a foreign territory’s governance. U.N. special adviser on sustainability Jeffrey Sachs called it “imperialism masquerading as a peace process” while multiple U.N. experts cast it as “regrettably reminiscent of colonial practices.”
VENEZUELA RAID AND OIL INTEREST
In early January, Trump ordered a deadly U.S. military raid in Venezuela that led to the seizure of ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife, who were subsequently brought to New York to face trial.
Trump said Washington will “run” Venezuela where Maduro’s former vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, became interim president and is governing the country under U.S. oversight. Trump said major U.S. oil companies would move into Venezuela, which has the world’s largest oil reserves.
Critics said Trump’s focus on exploiting Venezuelan oil raised questions about his administration’s efforts to frame the capture of Maduro as a law enforcement action aimed at reducing drug trafficking. The U.N. human rights office says U.S. actions in Venezuela were a violation of international law that made the world less safe.
“In practice, the president’s policies smack of neo-imperialism, not neo-isolationism,” Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a professor at Georgetown University, wrote. He also noted Trump’s threats against Mexico, Columbia and Greenland after the Venezuela raid.
GREENLAND THREAT
Trump has repeatedly said Washington must own Greenland, an autonomous part of the kingdom of Denmark that houses a U.S. airbase, to prevent Russia or China from occupying the strategically located and minerals-rich Arctic territory.
He says a U.S. military presence there is not enough. Greenland and Denmark have said that Greenland is not for sale, but Trump has not ruled out taking it by force. Denmark and the U.S are NATO members.
“In opting out of this consensus, the U.S. risks assuming the position of a rogue state within the international system,” Marc Weller, the director of the International Law Programme at the Chatham House think-tank, said.
Trump has also threatened to make Canada the 51st state of the U.S. but has not mentioned that in recent months.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Don Durfee and Stephen Coates)
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