The Doral Doctrine
Trump launches the “Shield of the Americas” at his own resort, Venezuela as the proof-of-concept, Mexico as the target list, and missiles pitched like room service.
Trump chose to unveil his new hemispheric security project at Trump National Doral, because if you’re going to reboot the Monroe Doctrine in the year of our lord 2026, you might as well do it somewhere with banquet packages and a gift shop. The setting matters: foreign leaders filed in, shook hands, posed for photos, and the whole thing had the vibe of a very expensive wedding where the groom owns the venue and the taxpayers are the open bar. CBS and the Guardian both describe the summit as being held at Trump National Doral in the Miami area.
The headline was not subtle: Trump announced a new military coalition he called the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition, packaged inside the broader “Shield of the Americas” banner. The stated mission is a coordinated, Western Hemisphere partnership targeting cartels and transnational gangs, with intelligence cooperation and joint operations, but with a new, unmistakably escalatory twist: Trump didn’t pitch this as training and advisories; he pitched it as lethal force. He flat-out says, “The heart of our agreement is a commitment to using lethal military force to destroy the sinister cartels,” which is the kind of line that takes you from “security cooperation” to “welcome to the missile menu” in one breath.
