How Imperialism Serves Trump's Domestic Political Project
A fatal ICE shooting may not seem to have much to do with Greenland, but they share the same roots
Imperialism is usually thought of as primarily a foreign policy strategy. Expanding control over weaker countries makes a country stronger vis-a-vis its competitors. What is less commonly understood -- since imperialism had mostly vanished after the collapse of the British and French Empires following World War II and the Soviet Empire in 1991 -- is that it also serves domestic purposes. In The Origins of Totalitarianism, the political theorist Hannah Arendt defined imperialism as making expansion the “permanent and supreme aim of politics.” Arendt understood imperialism as expanding political power of government without a corresponding increase in the body politic. In turn, she argued that imperialism led to totalitarianism, wherein a powerful leader ruled over a subjugated population.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and China’s increasing threats towards Taiwan, Donald Trump has taken the U.S. in an imperialist direction in his second term. On January 3, the U.S. ousted Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro, which President Trump said was done for the country’s oil. In an interview with the New York Times, Trump said that the U.S. could run Venezuela and extract its oil for years. (Meanwhile, autocratic Maduro loyalists maintain control over the country’s repressive security apparatus.) Following the Maduro ouster, Trump has renewed threats towards annexing Greenland, an autonomous sovereign territory of Denmark.
There are a few ways that imperialism is a domestic political strategy for Trump.
