Where will it strike next?Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to get The Daily Prospect Monday through Friday. [link removed]

[link removed]

**JANUARY 9, 2026**

Click to read this email in your browser. [link removed]

As soon as I saw the news that the U.S. had launched a military operation in Venezuela and kidnapped Maduro, I thought, “I bet the ayatollah’s sleeping with one eye open.” Though Iran might not be next on Trump’s list, it seems likely that he will continue to try to acquire territory and use aggressive measures to do it. It’s impossible to predict what that will look like, but I wanted to think about the possibilities and outcomes [link removed] of such actions.

**–Ellen Ioanes, foreign affairs reporter**

[link removed]

Photo illustration by Lauren Pfeil. Sources: Julia Nikhinson/AP Photo; Vectorig/iStock.

Where Trump’s Imperialism Could Strike Next [link removed]

In the days since U.S. Delta Force detained Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores on grounds related to drug and weapons charges [link removed], there have been frantic questions about the operation. Why would President Trump direct something so brazen and, potentially, illegal? What is the U.S. government’s plan for Venezuela’s future? And now that we’ve pulled off the audacious kidnapping of a head of state and essentially taken over a foreign country, could it happen again?

At the moment, Trump is renewing threats to take Greenland [link removed], the island territory under Danish administration that he says is strategically important for national security. But other countries, like Colombia, Cuba, and Iran, are at risk from an unchecked president. 

Trump has been in a prolonged spat with Colombian President Gustavo Petro. In September the State Department took the extraordinary step of sanctioning Petro and a number of his family members [link removed]. Trump has claimed that Petro himself is involved in the trafficking of cocaine, there’s no evidence to support that [link removed]. But Petro’s time in power is drawing to a close; he is limited to one term, and the new election season starts in March, when the U.S. could intervene in the presidential election, similar to Trump’s successful efforts [link removed] to sway midterm legislative elections in Argentina via a $20 billion credit lifeline [link removed].

When it comes to Cuba, there isn’t much there for the U.S. to plunder, like the oil reserves in Venezuela. Trump has not signaled a major appetite to intervene, and seems to think that the Cuban government will fall on its own. But there are still Cuba hawks and lots of anti-Communist Cuban Americans (particularly in vote-rich Florida) who might want to see regime change—most significantly, Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

And then there’s Iran. Since the hostage crisis over 45 years ago, Iran has had varying levels of conflict with the U.S., which usually plays out in diplomatic or clandestine actions, like the Stuxnet virus [link removed] unleashed on Iranian nuclear facilities in the early 2000s [link removed]. That long-term conflict already puts Iran in Trump’s crosshairs, coupled with Israel’s repeated attacks on Iranian soil as part of its war on Gaza and Trump’s own willingness to use force against the regime. Trump is threatening action [link removed] in the face of ongoing protests against the regime over abysmal economic conditions.

Continue reading this story [link removed]

prospect.org/donate

****ON OUR SITE****

A day after an ICE agent shot a woman to death in broad daylight, Kristi Noem was in Manhattan urging Americans to buy them lunch [link removed].

The Trump regime [link removed] is making natural disasters worse.

[link removed]

Read more about the [link removed]

IDEAS, POLITICS, and POWER [link removed]

that shape the world around us at [link removed]

prospect.org [link removed]

Copyright (c) 2025 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.**The American Prospect, Inc., 1225 I Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC xxxxxx, United States**
You are receiving this newsletter because you have signed up for our service.
To opt out of American Prospect membership, donation or advertising messaging, click here [link removed].
To manage your newsletter preferences, click here [link removed].
To unsubscribe from all American Prospect emails, including newsletters, click here [link removed].

[link removed]

[link removed]

[link removed]

[link removed]

[link removed]

Sent to: [email protected]

Unsubscribe [link removed]

The American Prospect, Inc., 1225 I Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC xxxxxx, United States