How right-wing media inspired Trump’s ‘Donroe Doctrine’
The New York Post cover from January 8
By Brian Stelter, CNN
(CNN) — While describing the US military operation in Venezuela on Saturday, President Trump referenced a two-word title for his determination to dominate the Western Hemisphere.
“They now call it the ‘Donroe Doctrine,’” Trump said, crediting unnamed others with the phrase.
Like so many of Trump’s talking points, this one has its roots in right-wing media.
The New York Post, one of his favorite publications, seems to have coined “Donroe Doctrine” about a year ago. The paper put the words on the cover on January 8, 2025, when Trump’s ambitions for Greenland were in the news.
The alliterative phrase gradually worked its way into geopolitical conversations, and it came up on Fox News the day before the strike: Griff Jenkins mentioned it on “Fox & Friends,” one of Trump’s favorite shows, Friday morning.
“What’s been described as the ‘Donroe Doctrine’ — remember the Monroe Doctrine? Exerting America’s dominance over, in this case, our western hemisphere,” Jenkins said.
Indeed, you probably learned about the Monroe Doctrine in high school history class. The 1823 statement warned European powers to respect the US sphere of influence in the West.
“The Monroe Doctrine is a big deal, but we’ve superseded it by a lot, by a real lot,” Trump said at his Saturday press conference, before uttering “Donroe Doctrine” for the first time.
Some listeners immediately searched for the origins of the phrase and found the New York Post cover.
The front page from last January also referenced Trump’s edict to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” and his talk of Canada becoming a 51st state.
The cover story by Post reporter Caitlin Doornbos quoted a source saying Trump was “laying out the early framework of the ‘Trump Doctrine.’”
The phrase “Donroe Doctrine” didn’t get much pickup at first. But it began to circulate more widely last fall, with headlines in the Financial Times, the New York Times and other outlets. It was also cited on Fox News several times in the fall.
Trump’s corollary “basically says we assert the right to go into any country whose internal troubles are creating a threat to us in the region. And that’s a pretty broad mandate,” New York Times chief Washington correspondent David Sanger said on CNN’s “Inside Politics.”
Trump used the phrase again Sunday night when he spoke with reporters on Air Force One, arguing the Venezuela action differs from US interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan because “it’s in our area. The Donroe Doctrine.”
A Post spokesperson had no comment about who came up with the headline. Post editor in chief Keith Poole is known to say internally that “all our headlines are a collective effort.”
Trump has had a complex relationship with the Post, his hometown tabloid, for decades. He’s been a source for the paper, a subject, a fan, a foe, and so on. He hopped on the phone with Post reporters both on Saturday and Sunday to talk about the Venezuela action and next steps in the country.
On Sunday, Trump said the US “should run the country with law and order. We should run the country where we can take advantage of the economics of what they have — which is valuable oil and valuable other things.”
A version of this article first appeared in the Reliable Sources newsletter. Sign up for free right here.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
