Presidential historian Richard Norton Smith, during his visit at the Rockefeller Center in mid-January, offered a simple but profound conservative standard for the office of the president. He said that the best presidents “combine moral imagination, humility, humor and sharp political instincts with an ambition rooted in service, not ego. The weakest are those who can’t see beyond their own time or faction — leaders who want the office more than they know what to do with it, and who never grow as the presidency itself evolves.”
By that standard, what we’re witnessing is a presidency that has explicitly rejected moral imagination in favor of what it sees as brutal efficiency. In fact, on the night of Jan. 5, when Stephen Miller, a top White House Adviser, sat across from CNN’s Jake Tapper, we saw the burial of the moral standard that historian Smith had talked about at the Dartmouth Dialogue.
Tapper, known for his fearless reporting, reached for the usual journalistic tools, including references to the UN Charter, appeals to international law and the principle of national sovereignty. Miller didn’t just deflect the questions — rather, he demolished the platform. With the amoral detachment of a man who knows he holds the MAGA high ground, Miller asserted that the era of leading from behind is over. In its place, he saw the imperative for a raw, unapologetic revival of the Theodore Roosevelt’s “Big Stick,” rebranded as the Donroe Doctrine.
The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 was a defensive-aggressive position, a “keep out” notice to European carpetbaggers. But the Donroe Doctrine is bold and belligerent. It proclaims that the Western Hemisphere — let’s not forget Greenland — is no longer just an American sphere of influence. It’s an extension of American security. The Jan. 3 scooping out of the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, from his palace wasn’t a law enforcement action. It was a message loud and clear that in 2026, the only rule that carries weight is the one backed by hypersonic missiles and choppers at night.
We’re witnessing the birth of new Superpower Imperialism in full display. For decades, we lived under the delusion that “Soft Power,” trade deals, cultural exchanges, foreign aid and human rights treaties were the fundamental international currency, a global system where every nation, big and small, had a voice. That hope died in Caracas.
The Trump administration looked at the global chessboard and decided that if China is going to militarize the South China Sea and Russia is going to treat Eurasia as a private estate, America should start acting like a global landlord rather than pretending it’s only a global sheriff.
The aphorism, “might is right,” attributed to the ancient Greek historian Thucydides, is based on the conviction that “The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” It speaks of Trump’s world. It’s efficient. It’s decisive. It cuts through the red tape jungle of the United Nations like a chainsaw through timber. But as Miller’s brutal defense of the Venezuelan operation made clear, it’s also a geopolitical philosophy that wrecks the very concept of a global community.
The seductive appeal of this “Hard Power” pivot is obvious, especially for the American people who are tired of the endless stalemates in Ukraine and Gaza, tired of the slow-moving gears of diplomacy, and hungry for quick solutions. Removing a dictator in 48 hours feels like “America First.” Looking past the immediate thrill of a successful military operation, we need to ask what happens to the world when the guardrails are gone.
When we embrace the “might is right” doctrine, we lose the moral and legal standing when other powers mimic us. If the U.S. can intervene in Venezuela because of “national security interests,” how do you hold back Beijing when it proclaims that the Philippines or Taiwan is its “national security interest” that justifies a similar action?
This isn’t just about Venezuela — it’s about the return of Leviathan grand-scale anarchy. If we continue down this path, we are heading toward a world carved into spheres of influence where your rights as a human being or a sovereign nation depend solely on which hegemon’s shadow you happen to live under. It is a world where trade becomes tariff-based hostage-taking and diplomacy becomes “Greenland or 10% tariff” kind of ultimatums.
The “Donroe Doctrine” might be winning the headlines today, and Stephen Miller might win the shouting match on cable news, but history is rarely kind to empires that trade their values for brutal dominance. What we need today is to reestablish a rules-based global order that recognizes we’re in a multipolar world that needs guardrails to prevent a global free-for-all. Without a shared set of rules, the world is just a dungeon where everyone is holding a dagger.
Narain Batra is a professor, historian, journalist and author whose work spans freedom, Artificial Intelligence, media and geopolitics. As host of the “America Unbound” podcast, he explores American power, technology and culture. He lives in the Upper Valley.