Donald Trump has always had big ambitions. And in his second term as US president, it appears like he’s trying to achieve them, at least the geographical ambitions that he has.
Following the United States’ capture of Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan president, and Trump’s declaration that Washington would run the South American nation for now, the US leader has now set his sights on the entire hemisphere as well as Greenland.
In the hours since capturing
Maduro and bringing him to New York City, where he will face
charges for narco-terrorism, the Trump administration has been making menacing warnings to various countries. Trump accused Colombia’s president of “making cocaine” and reaffirmed his past threats that he “does need to watch his ass.” He predicted, “we will be talking about Cuba”.
Fears have also been fanned that Trump could be looking at Greenland after the US president’s most influential aide posted a social media picture of Greenland painted in the colours of the US flag, writing “soon” above it.
So, what’s going on?
Is Trump eyeing Greenland?
On late Saturday, shortly after the US strikes on Venezuela and the eventual capture of Nicolas Maduro from his compound, Katie Miller — wife of Trump’s deputy chief of staff
Stephen Miller — posted an image on X, which quickly raised eyebrows.
The picture depicted Greenland painted in the colours of the US flag. She captioned the image, “soon”.
SOON pic.twitter.com/XU6VmZxph3
— Katie Miller (@KatieMiller) January 3, 2026
The post by Miller, who is a prominent America First social media personality, clearly rattled Denmark and Greenland, with Jesper Moller Sorensen, the Danish ambassador in Washington, issuing a “friendly reminder” that Denmark expected “full respect” for its territorial integrity as a close ally of the US.
Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the prime minister of Greenland, called the post “disrespectful”. “Relations between nations and peoples are built on mutual respect and international law — not on symbolic gestures that disregard our status and our rights,” he wrote on X.
However, he also said, “There is neither reason for panic nor for concern. Our country is not for sale, and our future is not decided by social media posts.”
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen also said that Trump must “stop the threats” about taking over Greenland. She stated that “it makes absolutely no sense to talk about the need for the United States to take over Greenland”, adding: “The US has no right to annex any of the three nations in the Danish kingdom.”
She further added that Denmark – “and thus Greenland” – was a Nato member and covered by the alliance’s security guarantee. Denmark already had a defence agreement with the US that gave it access to Greenland, she said, and Denmark had upped its investment in security in the Arctic region.
In his second term as US president, Trump has been quite vocal on his
demand for Greenland. Recently, he even appointed a
US envoy to the territory, drawing sharp objections from Copenhagen and the European Union.
And on Sunday, he doubled down, saying, “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”
Moreover, when The Atlantic asked what the US military action in Venezuela signalled for Greenland, Trump remained elusive saying: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know. But we do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defence.”
What about Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico?
Colombia
And it’s not just Greenland that’s on Trump’s radar. After the
Maduro capture, Trump sent a warning to the governments of Mexico, Cuba, and Colombia that their countries could be next.
In fact, even as the US forces were bringing Maduro to New York City, Trump warned
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro to “watch his ass”. The US president told reporters, “He’s making cocaine and they’re sending it into the United States, so he does have to watch his a**.”
Petro has been a vocal critic of Trump and his actions against alleged drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean. In fact, as the US carried out strikes against Venezuela, Petro called Washington’s actions an “assault on the sovereignty” of Latin America and said they would result in a humanitarian crisis.
On Sunday, Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, even threatened military action against Colombia’s government, telling reporters that such an operation “sounds good to me”.
“Colombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he’s not going to be doing it very long.”
Cuba
The American president also spoke of Cuba, saying he believed that the government in Havana would fall soon too. Trump’s remarks came a little after his Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted that Cuba was “in a lot of trouble”.
During an interview with NBC News, Rubio said: “I’m not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be and our policies are going to be right now in this regard. But I don’t think it’s any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime, who, by the way, are the ones that were propping up Maduro.”
#NBC: “Is the Cuban government the #Trump administration’s next target?”
Marco #Rubio: “Well, the Cuban government is a huge problem. Yeah…they’re in a lot of trouble, yes!” #Cuba https://t.co/kijQp6i3Gt pic.twitter.com/07SDJMe19y
— Boris Alexander Beissner (@boris_beissner) January 4, 2026
These remarks came after Rubio had earlier said, “If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned.”
In a press conference on Saturday, Trump had compared Venezuela to Cuba, saying: “It’s very similar [to Venezuela] in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba, but we want to also help the people that were forced out of Cuba and are living in this country.”
Mexico
Trump has also issued a warning against Mexico, saying, “something will have to be done”. In a Fox News interview on Saturday, the American leader accused his Mexican counterpart, Claudia Sheinbaum, of allowing drug cartels to operate in her country.
It’s clear from the Venezuelan strikes and capture of Nicolas Maduro that Trump is looking to exert his power wherever necessary. The question is how far and wide the US president will go to prove it.
With inputs from agencies
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