Trump’s critics from Bogota to the Arctic buckle under US power

From South America to the Arctic, the world is getting a crash course in the Trump doctrine.

It’s immediate, it’s retaliatory, it’s blunt. And it’s leaving countries oceans apart disoriented, rethinking diplomatic norms and wondering whether they’re on their own when fighting the American juggernaut.

That is partly by design — whether it’s deal-making or diplomacy, Donald Trump’s strategy has always been to keep people guessing — a mix of surprise and force that’s already roiling markets entering week two of his second term as US president. The onslaught against Colombia for refusing flights of deportees from the US lasted less than 12 hours before Bogotá capitulated.

The episode involving one of the US’s staunchest security and trade partners in Latin America shows Trump’s threats of economic pain through tariffs can be an effective diplomatic cudgel to accomplish short-term domestic priorities. It’s a lesson that’ll weigh on Mexico and Canada as they await word on whether Trump will follow through on his threat to impose 25% tariffs on their imports into the US on Feb. 1.

And not just them — but the likes of India, Japan and a swath of European countries, too. The question how to best respond to an ever-more assertive even belligerent US administration is being learned on the fly. The Trump doctrine — self-interest dressed up as patriotic nationalism — is unfurling in real time.

“Abject submission is the only thing that will be as accepted by Trump so he won’t be as malevolent as he could possibly be,” said Subir Sinha, director of the South Asia Institute at SOAS University of London.

Or as House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, a Republican from Florida, put it in a statement praising Trump’s handling of Colombia, “The rule of law and the law of the jungle have returned” – without addressing the apparent contradiction.

Modi’s Approach

India — with more than 1.4 billion people and aspirations to lead the Global South — said it would accept 18,000 undocumented Indian migrants, Bloomberg reported last week. Narendra Modi appears to have read the tone from the Oval Office and is working his personal connection to Trump to find ways to appease him behind the scenes. The Indian leader tweeted about his latest call with the US president Monday.

Meanwhile, Denmark, with a population of less than 6 million, is in crisis mode after Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s bruising phone conversation with Trump made clear his plan to take over Greenland is no joke.

He later belittled the fellow NATO member’s plan to protect the self-governing territory that is rich in critical minerals. “They put two dog sleds there two weeks ago,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “They thought that was protection.”

Frederiksen and other European leaders are still struggling to come up with an effective response to Trump’s aggressive approach. The Danish leader huddled with her Nordic colleagues Sunday and is scheduled to visit Germany Tuesday to meet Chancellor Olaf Scholz, another frequent target of the American president’s attacks.

“People are scared after everything that has happened,” Chairman of the Greenland committee in the Danish parliament, Aaja Chemnitz, said in an interview in Tromso, Norway on Monday.

“This not at all good news for US alliance partners like Japan,” said Masafumi Ishii, former Japanese ambassador to NATO and Indonesia. “It’s the American version of China’s ‘wolf diplomacy.’ It shows that unless you can prove to the US you are doing something to make it safer, stronger or more prosperous, you should expect a similar experience whether you are an alliance partner or not.”

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to Trump Sunday but, according to a person familiar with the matter, didn’t discuss Ukraine, Greenland or even the possibility of Trump imposing tariffs on the UK. It’s a dilemma many countries face when sticking up for an ally might put one in the firing line.

The former UK defense secretary, Ben Wallace, called for a tougher stance.