Norris R. McDonald | Trump, Hegseth, and US hegemony: Blood in our waters

ON DECEMBER 4, the US Senate and Congress launched investigations into a horrific incident where unarmed fishermen, survivors of an American airstrike, were later deliberately targeted and killed while clinging to floating wreckage. This is a flagrant violation of both the Second Geneva Convention and US military code, which forbid targeting non-combatants and wounded survivors.

Even if the initial strike had hit a suspected “drug-running vessel” — as the Trump administration claims — executing survivors is a war crime under both US and international law. Military law expert Michael Schmitt put it bluntly:

“I can’t imagine anyone, no matter the circumstance, believing it’s appropriate to kill people who are clinging to a boat in the water.”

Senator Rand Paul, no friend of foreign military adventurism, called the attack “despicable and outrageous”, condemning the glorification of murder without trial. Yet this is exactly what is happening — extrajudicial executions in the Caribbean and Pacific waters. This has cynically been framed as heroic “drug war actions”.

At least 87 people have so far been killed in 22 separate strikes.

TRUMP, HEGSETH NEW ‘MONROE DOCTRINE’

As public outrage grows, Trump and his loyal Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, are trying to dodge responsibility by blaming military leaders, particularly Admiral Mitchell Bradley. But this is just another of Trump’s cynical manoeuvres to avoid accountability.

These killings are being carried out under the banner of a “drug war” initiated by the Trump administration, but Americans are increasingly rejecting this narrative. Protests are swelling, fuelled by the senseless deaths of innocent fishermen — casualties of Trump and Hegseth’s misguided ego trip.

In response to the backlash, Trump, ever the opportunist, attempts to shift the conversation to his new “National Security Doctrine”. He claims it will establish a “New Monroe Doctrine” to ensure permanent US global dominance. But this rhetoric is not just dangerous, it’s delusional. It’s a hollow vision meant to distract from his administration’s mounting failures.

Trump thrives on chaos. When caught in criminal or corrupt acts, he diverts attention with grandiose schemes. But his latest attempt to reassert American hegemony, under the guise of a “new” Monroe Doctrine, is not only misguided; it’s a reckless pursuit of power that comes at the cost of both human lives and international stability.

CAN AMERICA AFFORD GLOBAL DOMINATION?

How can the US reclaim global dominance while drowning in a $37 trillion debt? Unemployment, hunger, poverty, homelessness, and hopelessness are on the rise. This year alone, one million Americans lost their jobs as a result of technological shifts from artificial intelligence (AI). With a stagnant labour market, these displaced workers will not be absorbed by other sectors.

Meanwhile, the US healthcare system is collapsing. Quality care is shrinking and rising costs are bankrupting families. If America can’t address these domestic crises, how can it afford Trump’s imperial ambitions?

Food prices are climbing like a rocket. High mortgages and rent are crushing young people, the middle class and retirees. Meanwhile, crops rot in fields because of a racist immigration regime that rounds up, kidnaps and deports, without regard for legal process, the Latino immigrant labour that keeps America fed.

TOXIC NARCISSIM AND IMPERIAL HUBRIS

Therefore, as America crumbles under the weight of internal crises, Trump’s response is more toxic narcissism — externalising the nation’s pain through violence and a ‘great power’ mentality.

Trump’s brand of white nationalism and imperialism is puerile. It dehumanises people both at home and abroad, while distracting from his administration’s financial misconduct and domestic policy failures.

The irony is striking. Trump preaches racism and “America First” from a White House built by the forced labour of black slaves. Yet, the US continues to export cruelty to the Caribbean and Pacific, turning these waters into a theatre of imperial power. The so-called “drug war” is not about drugs, it’s about imperial dominance, fuelled by the belief that non-white lives are disposable.

Trump’s politics weaponise the centuries-old hierarchy of human value, one that was born in the colonial era, repackaged through modern imperialism, and now expressed through brutal state power. The same ideology that justified caging children at the US-Mexico border now serves as a justification for deadly force beyond the shoreline.

NATIONALISM, IMPERIALISM AND RACIAL CAPITALISM

Today, the “drug trafficker” replaces the “runaway slave” as a legal construct that permits the state to use lethal force against Black and Brown of the Global South.

American racial capitalism has always required an “enemy” from the Global South — the enslaved African, the Caribbean plantation worker, the Haitian revolutionary, the Mexican migrant — each criminalised to legitimise violence.

This so-called “drug war” is merely another stage in the imperialist great power mentality, a smokescreen for yet more Trump hustle, as he arrogantly clings to power. But with this clear madness comes something even more haunting — the blood in our waters.

BLOOD IN OUR WATERS

When Trump labels migrants as invaders and treats human lives as expendable, the tragedy unfolding in the Caribbean and Pacific is inevitable. Fishermen killed at sea, their bodies drifting, and survivors — potential eyewitnesses — deliberately murdered.

What begins as dehumanisation leads to execution. The consequence is blood in our waters, an immoral tide washing up on our shores. The blood is the clear product of the Trump-Hegseth belief that non-white lives are worthless.

This is how ethnic cleansing begins: first, a racist, nationalist ideology; then, violence justified as necessary to achieve nationalist goals.

AMERICA’S HARD TRUTH

History will judge us harshly if we allow our seas to become graveyards while the blood of innocent fishermen floats in the water. The American people must face the hard truth: they elected Trump. Now they must confront the inhumanity done in their name — the racism, the imperial arrogance, and the cruelty disguised as public policy.

Some Americans are already fighting back — in the courts, in Congress, and on the streets. They see what the world sees: a dangerous administration using war crimes to project strength. The rest of America must find the courage to stop this madness.

As for the oppressed, we must continue the fight until the empire crumbles.

That’s the bitta truth.

Norris R. McDonald is an author, economic journalist, political analyst, and respiratory therapist

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