What is ‘Don-roe Doctrine’? Trump sends big message to US rivals after explaining Venezuela strike

President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the US operation in Venezuela, which involved strikes on the capital and the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, fell under what he called the “Don-roe Doctrine.” Trump stated that Venezuela under Maduro hosted “foreign adversaries in our region and acquiring menacing offensive weapons that could threaten U.S. interests and lives, and they used those weapons last night.”

“All of these actions were in gross violation of the core principles of American foreign policy, dating back more than two centuries, and not anymore,” Trump said, The Hill reported. “All the way back, it dated to the Monroe Doctrine. And the Monroe Doctrine is a big deal, but we’ve superseded it by a lot, by a real lot. They now call it the ‘Don-roe Doctrine," he added.

Policy was also meant to deter Russia's expansion

The National Archives notes that the original Monroe Doctrine was laid out by Former President James Monroe in a speech to Congress on Dec. 2, 1823, warning European nations against intervening in the Western Hemisphere. The policy was further shaped by Monroe’s secretary of state and presidential successor, John Quincy Adams, to discourage European countries from interfering with the affairs of Latin American countries that had declared their independence from countries like Spain and France, according to the State Department.

The policy was also meant to deter Russia from expanding into Alaska. Over the past two centuries, successive US administrations have drawn on the Monroe Doctrine to counter foreign influence in Latin America. The National Archives adds that it was cited in 1865 by US diplomats backing Mexican President Benito Juárez in his uprising against French-backed Emperor Maximilian.

Later, Former President Theodore Roosevelt expanded the doctrine in order to justify the intervention of the military across Latin America. In addition, some scholars argued that this doctrine prompted US military operations to destabilise left-wing governments not sympathetic to US interests, especially amid the Cold War.