Is Trump Doctrine a Resurrection or Updating of the Monroe Doctrine?

New foreign policy documents of President Donald Trump have resurrected talk about the Monroe Doctrine. According to this site, President James Monroe announced the Monroe Doctrine on December 2, 1823, in an annual message to Congress.. It was “a cornerstone“ of Monroe’s foreign policy, and it declared that “the Old World and New World had different systems,” and should, therefore, “remain distinct spheres.” 

The Monroe Doctrine made four basic points: (1) the United States would not interfere in the internal affairs of or the wars between European powers; (2) the United States recognized and would not interfere with existing colonies and dependencies in the Western Hemisphere; (3) the Western Hemisphere was closed to future colonization; and (4) any attempt by a European power to oppress or control any nation in the Western Hemisphere would be viewed as a hostile act against the United States….

The doctrine was an outgrowth of concern in both Britain and the United States that the Continental powers would attempt to restore Spain’s former colonies, in Latin America, many of which had become newly independent nations. The United States was also concerned about Russia’s territorial ambitions in the northwest coast of North America. As a consequence, George Canning, the British foreign minister, suggested a joint U.S.-British declaration forbidding future colonization in Latin America. Monroe was initially favorable to the idea, and former presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison concurred. But Secretary of State John Quincy Adams argued that the United States should issue a statement of American policy exclusively, and his view ultimately prevailed.

In his article dated December 5, 2025, and updated on December 8, 2025, William Hartung reported the following on Trump’s new security/defense strategy. 

The Trump Administration released its National Security Strategy (NSS) last night. The NSS is a precursor to the National Defense Strategy (NDS) – a document that goes into greater specifics about U.S. military priorities and strategy. The NDS could be released as early as this weekend.

In some respects the new security document could have been written 200 years ago, given its highly favorable endorsement of the Monroe Doctrine, which warns adversaries against seeking a military foothold in the Western Hemisphere. Some pundits have taken to calling this renewed commitment to policing the hemisphere the “Donroe Doctrine” in honor of President Trump. The challenge posed by China, and the state of security relations in the Middle East and Europe also receive attention, but the Western Hemisphere is prioritized in the document.

The Hartung article, published at Forbes, states that the “most dangerous application of the administration’s hemispheric focus is the prospect of a full-scale military intervention in Venezuela,” calling such a move “an extremely risky move that could impose severe economic and human costs.”

Hartung obviously thinks such action would be “misguided,” and thoughts of regime change not worth the cost with such weak rationale as the current war on drugs going on with narco-terrorists. He is supported by a bipartisan group from Congress who introduced a War Powers Resolution to block a war with Venezuela. Several Democrat senators and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) lead the effort.

Hartung’s article calls for “a national security strategy grounded in the realities of the 21^st century, not a throwback to failed policies of the past.”

On the other hand, conservatives like it. According to an article by George Caldwell at The Daily Signal, Trump’s “new National Security Strategy is garnering support across the conservative movement.” In fact, some conservatives consider it to be “a 33-page crystallization of just how the Trump movement wants to rethink America’s role in the world.” 

The paper advocates a new idea of America’s regional priorities: domination of the Western Hemisphere, shifting away from foreign aid and ideological influence campaigns in Africa, restoring peace and socio-economic vitality to Europe, and ending the policies that have made America cower before China on the world stage.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told The Daily Signal it is a welcome pivot away from misguided strategies of the past.

“This strategy gets the priorities right. It reasserts American leadership in our own Hemisphere where border security, cartel violence, and foreign encroachment threaten our people, and it meets the China challenge with the strength and clarity we’ve lacked for decades,” Schmitt wrote in a statement to The Daily Signal….

Dan Caldwell, a former senior adviser in the Pentagon, appears to agree with Schmitt’s assessment that the Trump administration is seeking to abandon the failed foreign policy of prior administrations. The strategy “is a true break from the failed bipartisan post-Cold War foreign policy consensus – a consensus that drove us headlong into endless wars and enabled free-riding by our allies,” Caldwell told The Daily Signal in a statement.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, also praised the paper’s emphasis on hemispheric hegemony in a statement to The Daily Signal.

“The Biden administration neglected our hemisphere to America’s detriment. Now we must contend with narco-terrorists, cartels, and Chinese influence. The NSS is an important first step in reasserting U.S. hegemony in our hemisphere and to make Americans safe and prosperous,” the Utah senator said.

In many ways, the paper proposes a resurrection of the nineteenth-century idea of America having a duty to dominate its neighborhood.

It explicitly calls for a “Trump corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine,” wherein neighboring governments would cooperate with the United States to combat criminals, “hostile foreign incursion or ownership of key assets,” and “ensure our continued access to key strategic locations.”

Rob Greenway, director of the national security center at The Heritage Foundation and a former deputy assistant to Trump, told The Daily Signal in a statement that he believes the document provides “timely context to what has been a successful tenure, and the thinking that will guide the nation going forward.” …

What is clear is that the administration does not believe it can be everywhere at once – that some regions are simply more important than others when it comes to American national security.