In 2025, Unit­ed States Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump dom­i­nat­ed the world po­lit­i­cal agen­da, dis­man­tling the sys­tem for a peace­ful world of co­ex­is­tence among na­tions built up in the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry. He de­stroyed the trad­ing sys­tem that the US had built through con­struc­tive en­gage­ment with the rest of the world. Trade treaties were ab­ro­gat­ed, and tar­iffs were uni­lat­er­al­ly levied on ma­jor trad­ing part­ners and al­lies. Yemeni Houthis, Iran, and rebels in Nige­ria were bombed. The year 2026 is prov­ing to be the same. It start­ed with the ex­tra­or­di­nary ex­trac­tion of Venezuela’s Pres­i­dent Maduro af­ter months of mil­i­tary ac­tiv­i­ty in the Caribbean.

Buoyed by the ini­tial suc­cess in Venezuela, the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion re­it­er­at­ed its de­sire to wrest Green­land from its NA­TO al­ly Den­mark and re­newed threats to Colom­bia, Cu­ba, and Mex­i­co. More tankers have been seized in in­ter­na­tion­al wa­ters. In 2025, US­AID and the Voice of Amer­i­ca, in­sti­tu­tions of Amer­i­can soft pow­er, were closed. Last week, in a fur­ther re­treat from glob­al co­op­er­a­tion, Pres­i­dent Trump signed an ex­ec­u­tive or­der sus­pend­ing US sup­port for 66 or­gan­i­sa­tions, agen­cies, and com­mis­sions, fol­low­ing his ad­min­is­tra­tion’s re­view of par­tic­i­pa­tion in and fund­ing for all in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­i­sa­tions, in­clud­ing those af­fil­i­at­ed with the Unit­ed Na­tions.

In a state­ment, US Sec­re­tary of State Mar­co Ru­bio out­lined the rea­sons for the with­draw­al from these in­sti­tu­tions. “The Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion has found these in­sti­tu­tions to be re­dun­dant in their scope, mis­man­aged, un­nec­es­sary, waste­ful, poor­ly run, cap­tured by the in­ter­ests of ac­tors ad­vanc­ing their own agen­das con­trary to our own, or a threat to our na­tion’s sov­er­eign­ty, free­doms, and gen­er­al pros­per­i­ty.”

This is a wa­ter­shed in US for­eign pol­i­cy. These ac­tions con­firm the US’s move to mer­can­til­ism, con­trol of oil, gas, and min­er­als, and its con­tin­ued will­ing­ness to re­move lead­ers who do not bend to its will. It is a warn­ing to Latin Amer­i­ca’s sec­ond-largest trad­ing part­ner, Chi­na, that it is the dom­i­nant re­gion­al pow­er. But it al­so sig­nals a sober­ing re­al­i­ty: mil­i­tary su­pe­ri­or­i­ty does not trans­late in­to po­lit­i­cal dom­i­nance. The regime in Venezuela re­mains in place even if the US will at­tempt to con­trol it re­mote­ly us­ing the block­ade as lever­age and sell­ing its oil dur­ing a “pe­ri­od of tran­si­tion.”

Which begs the ques­tion, tran­si­tion to what?

What do these de­vel­op­ments mean for Trinidad and To­ba­go? Is there a Maduro “div­i­dend” or ben­e­fit? Does this neg­a­tive­ly im­pact our ca­pac­i­ty or will­ing­ness to do busi­ness with Chi­na? The ge­o­graph­ic close­ness to the Unit­ed States cre­ates a para­dox. It should pro­vide ad­van­tages, but it al­so cre­ates over­whelm­ing vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty. Trinidad and To­ba­go, like the rest of the Caribbean, is over­pow­ered by US mil­i­tary su­pe­ri­or­i­ty. Nei­ther can we es­cape the US’s eco­nom­ic grav­i­ty, as our bank­ing and fi­nan­cial sys­tems are in­ex­tri­ca­bly linked to the US sys­tem. It is our largest trad­ing part­ner and a sig­nif­i­cant source of past for­eign di­rect in­vest­ment.

Al­though these facts lim­it T&T’s ca­pac­i­ty for in­de­pen­dent ac­tion, we must find mech­a­nisms to pur­sue our le­git­i­mate self-in­ter­est. This re­quires imag­i­na­tion and strong diplo­mat­ic skills to nav­i­gate these con­straints.

The world econ­o­my main­tained its pace in 2025 de­spite the ar­bi­trary im­po­si­tion of tar­iffs. Chi­na’s trade growth con­tin­ued de­spite the trade war with the US, and glob­al sup­ply chains ad­just­ed. How­ev­er, these are ear­ly days in 2026. The full im­pact of the US with­draw­al from var­i­ous in­ter­na­tion­al agen­cies and Maduro’s re­moval from pow­er will play out over the com­ing weeks and months. What­ev­er hap­pens, Trinidad and To­ba­go needs con­sis­tent and con­cert­ed ac­tion to achieve the eco­nom­ic growth nec­es­sary to main­tain its sta­bil­i­ty.