COMMENTARY Could this week's mayoral election in Miami — the self-proclaimed capital of Latin America — reflect the broader challenges Trump's bid for alpha control of the hemisphere faces?
Maybe you’ve heard the quip that Miami is so popular with foreign tourists because it’s so close to the United States.
It echoes the notion that Miami is more part of Latin America than of America — a trope the city doesn’t exactly discourage. In fact, it calls itself the capital of Latin America.
So in that tongue-in-cheek spirit, let’s say this week’s mayoral election in Miami was a Latin American contest.
If so, the result — the candidate President Donald Trump endorsed lost by a landslide — throws into question what Trump calls the unquestionable might of his Monroe Doctrine "corollary."
Last Friday night, his administration issued a declaration that the U.S. (or Trump) is the alpha Doberman of the western hemisphere — and all the beta Chihuahuas therein will bend to its (or his) will.
But right now, Monroe Doctrine 2.0 is only batting .500 — or worse when you consider the U.S. has so far failed to acquire Greenland and re-acquire the Panama Canal.
Or that Nicolás Maduro is still in charge in Venezuela.
READ MORE: A Nobel question: Should Venezuela's democracy be saved by Trump's military?
Trump does have Argentina and Honduras in the win column.
In Argentina’s October mid-terms elections, Trump warned that if the party of his right-wing amigo, President Javier Milei, didn’t come out on top, the U.S. would withhold a badly needed $40 billion bailout. The vote extortion — oops, I meant diplomatic advisory — worked.
As Hondurans went to the polls on Nov. 30 to choose a president, Trump similarly advised them to select his chosen candidate, right-winger Nasry Asfura. Despite a controversially if not suspiciously delayed vote count (as of Thursday morning a winner still wasn’t announced) it appears Asfura narrowly prevailed.
In Brazil, by contrast, Trump recently tried to shut down the sedition trial of another reactionary BFF, former President Jair Bolsonaro, by slapping an onerous 50% tariff on Brazilian goods.
The country thumbed its nose at Trump — Bolsonaro was convicted — and the episode has actually raised left-wing Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s approval ratings.
Now in Miami — the self-proclaimed corazón of Latin America and the Caribbean — Trump-endorsed Republican contender Emilio González just got stomped by Democrat Eileen Higgins in Tuesday’s mayoral run-off.
Higgins’ almost 20-point victory margin, fueled by anger about affordability and immigration, also seems to mock Monroe Doctrine 2.0.
Send in Jan. 6 rioters
So perhaps Trump didn’t turn the screws tightly enough in Miami.
His González endorsement didn’t come with bullying threats to cut off federal aid to the city if he didn’t get his way.
Nor did he announce in advance that a González loss could only result from electoral fraud — as he insisted would be the case in Honduras if Asfura lost — which would force him to send all those Jan. 6 rioters he pardoned this year marauding into Little Havana.
Trump, in other words, may be getting soft.
If Monroe Doctrine 2.0 is going to thrive for the remaining three years of his remaining presidency, he’s going to have to re-up his game.
He’s going to have to make good on his inauguration-day promise to seize control of the Panama Canal, which the U.S. so wokely handed to Panama a quarter century ago.
He’s going to have to man up and conquer Greenland and all its prized minerals from Denmark.
He’s going to have to actually invade Venezuela — and oust Maduro, its socialist dictator — and stop fooling around risking war crimes charges by executing suspected drug traffickers on the Caribbean.
He’s going to have to start walking the Monroe Doctrine talk more seriously — or else more Latin Americans, like the Brazilians and Miamians, will start taking him less seriously.
Or maybe, just maybe, he might realize the Monroe Doctrine has always been and always will be a key reason Latin America doesn’t play ball with the U.S. as willingly as the U.S. thinks it should.
Maybe he’ll figure out Chileans are poised this Sunday to elect right-winger José Antonio Kast not because Trump told them to (he hasn’t) but because Kast’s opponent, communist Jeannette Jara, represents a failed left-wing incumbent government.
Ditto for other conservative presidential election victories in the region this year, from Bolivia to Ecuador.
In fact, if Miami's González could tell Chile’s Kast anything right now, it might be this:
Be glad Monroe Doctrine 2.0 hasn't endorsed you.
