Under Trump, the primary tool for projecting U.S. power is shifting from economic instruments like tariffs to direct military, intelligence, and cyber capabilities. This "Donroe Doctrine" leverages America's asymmetrical advantages in these areas, especially in its hemisphere, to achieve foreign policy wins without relying on economic coercion.

The Trump administration's strategy for control isn't writing new authoritarian laws, but aggressively using latent executive authority that past administrations ignored. This demonstrates how a democracy's own structures can be turned against it without passing a single new piece of legislation, as seen with the FCC.

The US executive branch increasingly initiates military action by citing inherent commander-in-chief powers, sidestepping the constitutional requirement for Congress to declare war. This shift, exemplified by the Venezuela operation, marks a 'third founding' of the American republic where historical checks and balances on war-making are now considered quaint.

The Posse Comitatus Act restricts direct military training of civilian law enforcement. However, federal agencies like ICE are not governed by this act, creating a gray area for unprecedented military involvement in domestic security without needing formal declarations like the Insurrection Act.

The Insurrection Act is a potent tool for executive power because it is a specific exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, which normally prohibits using the military for civilian law enforcement. Invoking it allows a president to deploy troops in American cities to perform police functions.

The US has established a precedent of using military force to apprehend fugitives abroad based on domestic legal actions, as seen with Noriega in 1989 and Maduro now. This practice blurs the line between law enforcement and an act of war, creating a thin legal justification for military intervention without traditional congressional or international approval.

Unlike past administrations that used pretexts like 'democracy,' the Trump administration openly states its transactional goals, such as seizing oil. This 'criming in plain sight' approach is merely an overt version of historical covert US actions in regions like Latin America.

A president can legally initiate military actions like a blockade without congressional approval by first designating the target regime as a 'Foreign Terrorist Organization.' This provides a separate legal playbook and set of executive powers, circumventing the formal declaration of war process.

The War Powers Resolution's 60-day limit is triggered by "hostilities." The Obama and Trump administrations exploited the term's ambiguity, arguing that military actions like drone strikes against an enemy that cannot retaliate do not count as "hostilities," thus avoiding the need for congressional authorization.