Opinion | Trump's New Rule For The Road: My Way Or The Highway |
2026 has barely begun and US President Donald Trump is on a rampage. On Saturday, January 3, he shocked the world by ordering the military invasion of Venezuela and the kidnapping of its president Nicolas Maduro and his wife, and, thereafter, announcing the takeover of the oil-rich country.
On Monday, the dust had barely settled on that when White House adviser Stephen Miller said on TV that Greenland rightfully belonged to the US and that the Trump administration could seize Danish territory if it wanted. Asked whether the US would rule out the use of force, Miller said that "Nobody's going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland."
On Thursday, Trump directed his government to withdraw the country from 66 international organisations, which he felt were contrary to the interests of the United States. The list included 35 non-UN organisations and 31 UN affiliated outfits, the most important of which is probably the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) of 1992, the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change, UN Women, UN Population Fund and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
A day earlier, on Wednesday, cool as a cucumber, he reached out to one of his principal media adversaries, The New York Times, which had criticised the Venezuela action as an "imperialist venture". In a wide-ranging, two-hour interview, he declared that his powers as Commander-in-Chief were constrained only by his "own morality" and international law and other checks had no effect on his ability to invade and coerce nations around the world. The morality bit was a bit rich, coming from a man who has been accused of sexual misconduct arising from his association with Jeffery Epstein.
Trump said in the interview that the US would remain "in charge" of........