Trump Opens New Front Against China With Brazen Arrest of Maduro (3)

Donald Trump’s brazen move to snatch Nicolás Maduro from his Caracas home last week also sent a clear message to Chinese President Xi Jinping: The Western Hemisphere has no room for another superpower.

The US military’s raid on Venezuela — home to the world’s largest oil reserves and the only country in Latin America that boasts an “all-weather strategic partnership” with Beijing — marked an audacious debut of what Trump has called the “Donroe Doctrine,” a revival of the 19th-century policy by then President James Monroe establishing US dominance in the Americas.

Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrives at the Wall Street heliport ahead of his appearance in federal court in New York, on Jan. 5.

Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

Xi, with Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, and Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, right at the China-CELAC Forum in Beijing, in 2025.

Ding Haitao/Xinhua/eyevine/Redux

Codified in the White ...