By Tim Lister, CNN
A protester wearing a mask of US President Donald Trump performs during a demonstration condemning the US attack on Venezuela and the seizure of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, in front of the US embassy in Seoul on 5 January, 2026. Photo: JUNG YEON-JE / AFP
Since the seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by US forces at the weekend, US President Donald Trump and members of his administration have issued warnings to several other countries and territories - including Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Iran and Greenland, a self-governing territory of Denmark.
Trump said Sunday: "We are in the business of having countries around us that are viable and successful and where the oil is allowed to freely come out."
"American dominance in the Western hemisphere will never be questioned again," Trump said.
Here's what to know about what Trump has said in the last two days, and how some of those governments have responded.
Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance tour the US military's Pituffik Space Base on March 28, in Pituffik, Greenland with base commander Susannah Meyers, left. Photo: Jim Watson/Getty Images via CNN Newsource
Greenland
Trump repeated on Sunday that the US needs the huge north Atlantic island of Greenland "from the standpoint of national security".
"We need Greenland… It's so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. "We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it."
Responding to Trump's latest comments, Greenland's Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen said Monday that "the current and repeated rhetoric coming from the United States is entirely unacceptable. When the President of the United States speaks of 'needing Greenland' and links us to Venezuela and military intervention, it is not only wrong. It is disrespectful.
"Our country is not an object in great-power rhetoric. We are a people. A country. A democracy," Nielsen added.
Trump has repeatedly stated that he wants to annex Greenland - a huge, resource-rich 2,166,000 square kilometre island in the Atlantic and self-governing territory of Denmark - claiming that this is needed for American security purposes.
Both Greenland and Denmark, a NATO ally of the US, are staunchly opposed to the idea.
Colombia's President Gustavo Petro says an attack on a Colombian National Police helicopter has killed at least eight people and injured several others. File picture. Photo: AFP
Colombia
Trump had harsh words for Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Sunday, describing him as "a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he's not going to be doing it very long".
When pressed by a reporter if those comments meant there could be an "operation" in Colombia in the future, Trump responded, "sounds good to me".
Petro defended his government's track record on combatting drug trafficking in a near 700-word post on X, including what he described as "the largest cocaine seizure in the world's history".
He added: "I am not illegitimate, nor am I a narco, I only have as assets my family home that I still pay for with my salary."
Petro said he has ordered targeted bombings against drug-linked armed groups while adhering to humanitarian law.
However, cocaine production in Colombia has reached record highs, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Petro, a former member of the M19 guerilla group, said later Monday that he would himself fight to defend Colombia.
"I swore not to touch a weapon again… but for the homeland I will take up arms again," he said.
Petro angered the Trump administration and had his US visa cancelled in September after calling on US soldiers to disobey orders.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to reporters about a US strike on Venezuela from Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on January 3, 2026. Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters via CNN Newsource
Cuba
Trump said Sunday that military intervention was unnecessary in Cuba, a key ally of Venezuela, because it was "ready to fall".
"I don't think we need any action," Trump said. "It looks like it's going down."
"I don't know if they're going to hold out, but Cuba now has no income," he added. "They got all their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil."
But his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, called the Cuban government "a huge problem".
"I think they're in a lot of trouble, yes," Rubio told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday.
"I'm not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be and our policies are going to be right now, in this regard, but I don't think it's any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime."
"If I lived in Havana and I worked in the government, I'd be concerned," Rubio said.
At a rally Saturday in front of the US Embassy in Havana, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel promised not to let the Cuba-Venezuela alliance go down without a fight.
"For Venezuela, of course for Cuba, we are willing to give even our own life, but at a heavy cost," Díaz-Canel proclaimed.
Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum suggests the United States should be called ‘Mexican America’, in response to Trump's proposal to rename the Gulf of Mexico, on January 8. Photo: Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource
Mexico
Trump has frequently accused Mexico of not doing enough to clamp down on drug cartels.
On Sunday, he said drugs were "pouring" through Mexico and that "we're going to have to do something."
Trump added that the cartels in Mexico were "very strong" and "Mexico has to get their act together."
In a phone interview with Fox News, Trump said he had asked Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum if she wanted the US military's help in rooting out drug cartels.
Sheinbaum again rejected the US intervention in Venezuela and the seizure of Maduro on Monday.
"Mexico reaffirms a principle that is neither new nor open to ambiguity: We categorically reject intervention in the internal affairs of other countries."
Responding to Trump's accusations that Mexico has not done enough to combat drug trafficking cartels, Sheinbaum asserted: "Mexico cooperates with the United States, including for humanitarian reasons, to prevent fentanyl and other drugs from reaching its population, especially young people.
"We do not want fentanyl or any drug to get near any young person - whether in the United States, in Mexico, or anywhere else in the world."
Again rejecting the notion of US military action on Mexican soil, Sheinbaum said she did not think an invasion of Mexico was something the US was taking seriously.
Burning debris lies next to an overturned dumpster in the middle of a street during unrest amid demonstrations in Hamedan, Iran, on 1 January, 2026. Photo: MOBINA / AFP
Iran
Trump also repeated his warning to Iran, where anti-government protests are into their second week.
"If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they're going to get hit very hard by the United States," Trump told reporters Sunday.
Last week, Trump said that if Iran "kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go."
One Iranian human rights group estimated Sunday that 16 people had been killed in the protests so far. CNN cannot verify that tally.
At the end of last month, Trump warned Iran against any attempt to rebuild its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said he had heard Iran is "behaving badly… I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we're going to have to knock them down."
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday the Islamic Republic "will not yield to the enemy" and rioters should be "put in their place".
The US bombed several of Iran's key nuclear facilities in June, amid Israel's 12-day war against the country. The attack ended what had been a stuttering process of bilateral US-Iran talks designed to rein in its nuclear program.
- CNN
