# Greg Grandin on Trump’s “Universal Police Warrant”

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-intercept-briefing-951534/greg-grandin-on-trump-s-universal-police-warrant
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-intercept-briefing-951534/greg-grandin-on-trump-s-universal-police-warrant.md
Podcast: [The Intercept Briefing](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-intercept-briefing-951534)
Published: 2026-01-09T10:30:00+00:00
Episode link: https://theintercept.com/2026/01/09/trump-venezuela-maduro-greg-grandin/
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/f5b64019-68c3-57d4-b70b-043e63e5cbf6/e/696039b6d11f0c4fbb8fd318/media.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-intercept-briefing-951534/episodes/greg-grandin-on-trump-s-universal-police-warrant
Duration seconds: 2270

## Resource

How long will the United States claim control over Venezuela? “Only time will tell,” President Donald Trump told the New York Times on Wednesday — potentially years. U.S. troops invaded the country over the weekend, kidnapping President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Maduro and Flores pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism charges in New York on Monday. They now sit in a Brooklyn jail, awaiting trial.  Trump and administration officials have justified ousting Maduro by claiming it was consistent with the Monroe Doctrine — a doctrine that through the years “has been expanded into something like a universal police warrant that allows the United States to intervene,” says historian Greg Grandin . “Trump has redefined the Monroe Doctrine to mean, the Monroe is as a weapon that the United States can use in order to protect its interests wherever it wants, whenever it wants. So it's a substitute for liberal international law.”  This week on the Intercept Briefing, host Jessica Washington discusses the Trump administration’s attack on Venezuela, its larger aims of controlling the Western Hemisphere, and bringing Latin America to heel with Grandin, the author of numerous books , including most recently " America, América: A New History of the New World ." “There's an affiliation between the Monroe Doctrine and American First nationalism,” says Grandin. “They imagine United States sovereignty expanding well beyond its borders within its hemisphere.”  The administration’s vision is outlined in the National Security Strategy the White House released in December. “This is a strategy that announces that the Monroe Doctrine is back in the especially bellicose form. But what's also interesting, if you read further, the United States is not withdrawing from a…

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