The Trump administration may have a new conquest on its mind.“After Cuba, Nicaragua is next,” a Donald Trump-endorsed Republican representative for Florida declared this morning.María Elvira Salazar is pushing an agenda close to the 47th President of the United States’ heart: Dominating the Americas.It is in response to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega declaring perpetual one-party rule.Democracy is now banned in the Central American nation.“There won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power,” the President says, accusing the United States of election interference.“The days when parties backed by the Yankees and the Somocistas would return to power are over – never, never again!”President Ortega’s attack on election credibility mirrors President Trump’s own. But his move may present the White House with an opportunity.“The United States must stand unequivocally with the people of Nicaragua,” Representative Salazar states. “After Cuba, Nicaragua is next.”It comes amid renewed sabre-rattling among President Trump’s core supporters.They want Greenland. They want Canada. They want Panama. They want Cuba. They want greater control over Venezuela.American adventurismThe Trump administration’s Iran adventure continues to spin out of control. Now, a second narrow shipping lane critical to global supplies of oil, gas and fertiliser is under threat. Yemen’s Houthi rebels are threatening to close the Bab el-Mandeb (Gate of Tears) in the same manner as Iran has the Hormuz Strait.The surprise special forces seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January set the scene. But an ongoing bombing campaign against suspected drug-running boats in the Caribbean has produced uncertain results. The future of neighbouring Cuba is also playing on President Trump’s mind.“We’ll take over Cuba almost immediately,” President Donald Trump said in May. “On the way back from Iran, we’ll have … the USS Abraham Lincoln come right by Cuba, stop about 100 yards (91.4m) offshore, and they’ll say, ‘Thank you very much, we give up’.”But Nicaragua’s President Ortega has made himself a tempting target.He’s cracked down violently on protests since 2018.He’s rewritten the constitution and crushed the political opposition. Lawyers have had their licences revoked, public advocacy organisations closed, and religious leaders expelled.His 2021 election victory was declared illegitimate by the international community. Now, President Ortega has done away with the pretence.“One by one, the dictators of the last era are answering for their crimes,” Florida representative Salazar states in a social media post.“Maduro sleeps in a cell in New York. The Ayatollah is dead. Raúl Castro is under indictment. Daniel Ortega … still sits in Managua.”Washington-based Atlantic Council think-tank analyst María Fernanda Bozmoski agrees. “While the unfolding situation in Cuba deserves the attention it is receiving, the United States should also turn its focus to another repressive Latin American regime: Nicaragua,” she writes.“The country is too central, large, and significant to work around.”Expansionist visionsGreenland is part of Denmark “for now”, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a Capitol Hill hearing last month.“It’s a lot easier to defend it when you have control and complete control of it.”It came shortly after the US President, 80, again expressed his desire to make Canada the “51st State”.Then, amid the NATO summit in Turkey earlier this month, President Trump further damaged relations with Europe by reasserting his belief that “[Greenland] should be controlled by the US, not by Denmark”.“And when they wouldn’t go along with it, and with all the money we spend to help them with Russia … ” he trailed off.President Trump, a former reality television host and real estate developer, has created unprecedented strain on longstanding United States alliances and international relationships.Tackling a clear-cut dictator head-on may restore his freedom-loving credentials.Trump administration Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for an international response overnight.“The United States calls on the international community to join forces to demonstrate to the Murillo-Ortega dictatorship that it cannot expect to maintain business as usual with other nations when it is thwarting the basic tenets of our democratic hemisphere,” he told media.War is not the only option.Sanctions. Supporting opposition movements. Diplomacy.Which path President Trump chooses for Nicaragua is yet to be seen.“A viable future for Nicaragua requires the country’s dictators, Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, to relinquish power and guarantee free and fair elections as soon as possible,” Ms Bozmoski states.“In the end, the White House may decide not to go as far in confronting Nicaragua as it did with Venezuela and Iran, or even as far as it is going with Cuba, where the endgame is still unclear.”Jamie Seidel is a freelance writerRead related topics:Donald Trump