President Donald Trump may have more countries on his hitlist in the wake of his audacious invasion and snatch-and-grab of the leader of Venezuela over the weekend. American special forces captured the controversial president of the South American nation, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife Cilia Flores, after a night-time raid on the capital Caracas. 

Maduro pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking charges in a US courtroom on Monday, and despite an interim government being put in place in Venezuela, Trump has said the United States will “run” the country until there is a “safe, proper and judicious transition”. He also said US oil companies would fix the “broken infrastructure” and “start making money for the country”.

Page 15 of the new US National Security Strategy (NSS) states “the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” and it looks likely Trump and Washington may have more countries they wish to exert their will over.

Scroll down for a list of countries America may consider taking control of in 2026.

Cuba

A Caribbean neighbour of the United States and just over 90 miles from Florida, the island nation has long been a thorn in the side of successive US governments. The bad feeling dates back to the 1950s and before the dark days of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the communist leadership of Cuba invited the Soviets to place nuclear-capable missiles on the island. The move looked set to spark a world war between Russia and the United States. The doomsday scenario was averted when Moscow backed down, but the latin nation has continued to be mistrusted by American administrations.

The United States has long maintained a naval base on the island of Cuba, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and in recent years, relations have thawed somewhat, but Cuba remains under US sanctions, and the government has had close relations with Maduro’s regime in Venezuela.

On Sunday, Trump said the US did not need to attack Cuba because the government there was “ready to fall” because it would no longer be getting oil revenue from Venezuela.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio – who is the son of Cuban immigrants, said if he was part of the government in the Cuban capital Havana: “I’d be concerned, at least a little bit. When the president speaks, you should take him seriously.”

Greenland

Trump has repeatedly expressed an interest in taking over control of the world’s largest island which lies off the US and Canadian Atlantic Arctic coast. The vast landmass is believed to contain huge deposits of minerals and resources, and Trump has also publicly stated he believes the territory is vital for US national defence against what he said were the hostile intentions of Russia and China.

Speaking to journalists on board Air Force One in the past few days, Trump said “we need Greenland from the standpoint of national security” and he claimed it was “covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place”. Greenland is administered by a US NATO ally Denmark and both the regional government and the authorities in Copenhagen have reacted angrily to US overtures and taking over the island, with both saying no such deal will take place.

Iran

The Islamic Republic was already on the receiving end of US firepower last year in strikes on suspected nuclear sites. But in recent weeks the country has seen rare signs of unrest amongst the population staging protests in towns and cities against the authoritarian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the brutal Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

Trump said of the recent uprisings: “We’re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States”. He added the US was “locked and loaded” ready to act.

Colombia

Colombia is a close neighbour of Venezuela, both politically and geographically. Since the strike by US forces over the weekend, the authorities in Bogata have moved tens of thousands of Colombian troops to the border with Venezuela as a pre-emptive measure against any US attack.

Trump warned Colombian president Gustavo Petro to “watch his ass” adding he thought the country was “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States”.

He said: “He’s not going to be doing it for very long.”

President Petro has rejected Trump’s accusations that he’s sending cocaine to the US and he said he firmly rejects any plans by the US to launch strikes against drug traffickers in the South American country.

In a message on X, Petro said his government has conducted record amounts of cocaine seizures and warned the Trump administration that it would kill children if it conducts strikes against drug trafficking groups and rebels in Colombia. Petro, who was a member of a left wing guerrilla group in his youth, said he will “return to arms” if the US government stages attacks in Colombian territory. The Colombian leader said he recently fired Colombian intelligence officers who are feeding the US administration with “false information” on his government.

Mexico

Mexico has already been battered by US trade war tariff threats from the White House and the border between the US and its Central American neighbour now boasts the huge wall built on the orders of President Trump.

Trump also signed a new motion declaring the former Gulf of Mexico would now be called the “Gulf of America” and he frequently accuses Mexican authorities of allowing illegal immigrants and drugs into the United States.

On Sunday, Trump told reporters “we’re going to have to do something” about the drug cartels which he said were “very strong”. Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum has publicly rejected any US military action on Mexican soil.