“They took our oil rights — we had a lot of oil there. As you know they threw our companies out, and we want it back.” – Donald Trump, December 17, 2025
“And the Monroe Doctrine is a big deal, but we’ve superseded it by a lot, by a real lot.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 Donroe Doctrine.” – Donald Trump, January 3, 2026
As we mark the beginning of a new year, many of us still follow the tradition of making aspirational resolutions, all the while knowing from experience that they will no doubt be short lived. When reporters asked for his New Year’s resolution as he arrived at a New Year’s Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Donald Trump stated that his resolution was “Peace. Peace on Earth“. He also shared this message in a social media post.
It was but a few days later in the dark morning hours of January 2 that he sat before a TV monitor in his estate gleefully watching the bombing of a sovereign nation by United States military forces and the kidnapping (or “decapitating” in military jargon) of its head of state, all upon his orders as commander-in-chief. “I mean, I watched it, literally, like I was watching a television show,” Trump stated on FOX News. “If you would have seen the speed, the violence — we watched every aspect of it.”
The domestic injustices endured by persons residing in the United States of America in 2025 under the MAGA mandates of the Trump regime have now exploded onto the world stage. Now in 2026 making America great again means taking the MAGA show on the road. What began in late 2025 with the military buildup and bombing of small boats and crews (alleged drug-runners) off the coast of Venezuela culminated with the opening salvo of a “might makes right” campaign that ultimately seeks to forcefully dominate the entire Western Hemisphere.
It begins with the concocted rationale floated by Secretary of State Rubio and given wind in its sails by right wing media. It is an attempt to legitimize the clandestine attack dubbed Operation Absolute Resolve. It is centered on a superseding U.S. indictment for narco-terrorism, cocaine trafficking, and weapons charges, with the Trump administration framing it as enforcing justice against a leader running a drug organization and destabilizing the region.
In a press conference following the attack, Rubio explained the military action was deployed to “protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant” from the Department of Justice. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth praised the military for its “support of law enforcement.” Attorney General Pam Bondi had also stated that the defendants (Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores) “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts”.
Such rhetorical “spin” (aka propaganda) is intended to categorize the operation as a law enforcement action rather than an act of war or a military invasion, which would have required congressional authorization and likely faced more scrutiny under international law. But atrocities preformed under a fallacious veil of enforcing justice by what may be the most corrupt administration and partisan DOJ in history remain atrocities no mater what noble sounding tales and righteous rhetoric powerful perpetrators spin to justify their dastardly deeds.
Trump, himself, cut through the propaganda when he repeated time and time again that it is all about the oil, the biggest deposit of oil on the planet. It’s his contention that it is rightfully ours, we are taking control it it and no one can stop us. Try to get in our way and you’ll pay the price. That is the message not only to Venezuela, but to the entire Western Hemisphere and anywhere in the world the Trump regime believes it is strong enough to take. It is the modern version of the Monroe Doctrine on steroids, now re-branded as the “Donroe Doctrine”.
The portrait of James Monroe, the fifth U.S. President, hangs near Trump’s desk in the Oval Office. On December 2, 1823 Monroe declared in his address to Congress that the Western Hemisphere is off-limits to new European colonization, thus instituting what became known as the Monroe Doctrine. It was neither by accident nor serendipity that on December 2 of 2025 Trump announced that his Administration “proudly reaffirms this promise under a new ‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine.” Soon afterward a controversial national security strategy [read the link!] appeared, laying out the Trump Corollary in a section detailing its planned approach to the Western Hemisphere.
Call it the Donroe Doctrine or call it the Trump Corollary, but also call it out as the abolition of international law and the antithesis to world peace built on true justice. We find no corollary to it in scripture. The Christian Church finds its understanding of justice in scripture which strongly condemns performative or superficial justice, consistently emphasizing that God looks at the heart and demands genuine righteousness, mercy, and impartiality over mere outward appearances or ritual.
Jesus compares hypocritical teachers of the law and Pharisees to “whitewashed tombs,” which appear beautiful on the outside but are full of death and uncleanness inside. Their outward appearance of righteousness was a facade for inner corruption. (Matthew23:27-28) The words from Isaiah 59:4 echo across time to address the injustice unfolding before us as the Donroe Doctrine is attempted to be forced down the world’s throat: “No one is concerned about justice; no one sets forth his case truthfully. They depend on false words and tell lies; they conceive of oppression and give birth to sin.”
And so it is that this first ominous week of 2026 marks the launch of what the architects and adherents of the MAGA movement resolve to become a whole new world order. Will it fly? Or will this at last be the year that the MAGA minions and sorry sycophants say “enough”? In a January 5 interview with NBC News Trump stated when asked about some of his base opposing intervention in Venezuela, “MAGA loves it. MAGA loves what I’m doing. MAGA loves everything I do,” Trump said. “MAGA is me. MAGA loves everything I do, and I love everything I do, too.”
Tomorrow, one week after the bombing of Caracas and kidnapping of Maduro, all across this nation citizens will turn out in large numbers to stage non-violent protests and vigils to demonstrate that they do NOT love everything the President is doing. They do NOT love the unjust invasion and bombing of Caracas and kidnapping of a foreign leader no matter what a scoundrel he may be. And on the home front, they definitely do NOT love the invasion of Minneapolis, Minnesota by the modern version of the Nazi Gestapo, and the fatal shooting by an ICE agent of Renee Good, a 37 year old mother of three on Wednesday, as well as the months-long pattern of unchecked violence and abuse in marginalized communities across America by ICE and other Federal law enforcement agencies.
Becca Good, the wife of Minneapolis ICE shooting victim Renee Good, released a statement to Minnesota Public Radio expressing her thanks for the outpouring of support her family has received. It is a fitting ending to this post and this week of lawlessness in both foreign and domestic affairs. Please visit the LINK
Continue to pray and work for Peace on Earth, and good will to all, all God’s creatures great and small.
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