DORAL, Fla. — President Donald Trump is convening Latin American leaders Saturday at his Miami-area golf club as his administration seeks to refocus U.S. foreign policy on the Western Hemisphere even while grappling with major crises overseas.
The meeting, billed as the “Shield of the Americas” summit, comes two months after a U.S. military operation captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife on drug conspiracy charges, and one week after the U.S. and Israel launched a war on Iran that has already killed hundreds, rattled markets and destabilized the Middle East.
Trump’s time with regional leaders will be brief: he is also scheduled to fly to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, for the dignified transfer of six U.S. troops killed in a drone strike on a Kuwaiti command center. Still, the summit is meant to shift attention back to the hemisphere and to showcase a renewed U.S. push against what the administration frames as growing Chinese influence in the region.
“Under previous leaders, we grew obsessed with every other theater and every other border in the world except our own,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told regional defense ministers and officials gathered in Florida this week for drug-cartel discussions. “These elites reduced our power and presence in this hemisphere, opting for a benign neglect that was anything but benign.”
Confirmed participants at Trump National Doral Miami include the leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago. The resort is also slated to host the Group of 20 summit later this year.
The idea for a smaller conservative-aligned gathering grew out of the failed 10th Summit of the Americas, which was canceled amid a U.S. military buildup off Venezuela last year. The Dominican Republic, under White House pressure, had barred Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from the original summit. Left-leaning leaders in Colombia and Mexico then threatened to pull out in protest, and with no firm commitment from Trump to attend, Dominican President Luis Abinader postponed that event, citing “deep differences.”
The “Shield” label signals Trump’s “America First” regional strategy, one that relies on robust U.S. military and intelligence engagement not seen in the hemisphere since the Cold War’s end. But notable absences include the region’s two largest powers, Brazil and Mexico, and Colombia, a longtime U.S. anti-narcotics partner.
Richard Feinberg, who helped plan the first Summit of the Americas in 1994, contrasted the two approaches. “The first Summit of the Americas, with 34 nations and a carefully negotiated comprehensive agenda for regional competitiveness, projected inclusion, consensus and optimism,” said Feinberg, now professor emeritus at UC San Diego. “The hastily convened Shield of the Americas mini-summit conjures a crouched defensiveness, with only a dozen or so attendees huddled around a single dominant figure.”
Countering China has become a central theme of Trump’s regional policy. His national security strategy frames a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine that targets Chinese infrastructure projects, military ties and investments in resource sectors across Latin America. The administration has pushed Panama to withdraw from China’s Belt and Road Initiative and has scrutinized long-term port contracts held by a Hong Kong-based firm amid blunt warnings about U.S. control of the Panama Canal.
The Maduro operation and Trump’s vow to “run” Venezuela are further pressure points: disrupting Venezuelan oil shipments could hit China, which was a major buyer of Venezuelan crude. Trump is slated to travel to Beijing later this month to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Analysts say many Latin American governments see pragmatic reasons to keep ties with China. Beijing’s trade-focused diplomacy offers financing and infrastructure in regions facing poverty and development shortfalls, while the U.S. has cut foreign assistance and pursued tough immigration and enforcement policies unpopular in much of Latin America.
“The U.S. is offering the region tariffs, deportations and militarization whereas China is offering trade and investment,” said Kevin Gallagher, director of Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center. “Leaders in the region would do well to remain neutral and hedge, such that they can leverage increased U.S.-China rivalry to their own benefit.”
Ahead of the summit, Trump named Kristi Noem, recently removed as Homeland Security secretary, as his special envoy for the Shield of the Americas. Noem said Trump would announce “a big agreement” at the summit focused on efforts to target cartels and drug trafficking across the hemisphere.
