It’s not to be confused or conflated with reputable predecessor, the Summit of the Americas, initiated by President Bill Clinton whose assembly of 34 hemispheric leaders was historic in number and agenda.
Trump’s assembly of leaders, the Doral 12, reads more like the cowed and corralled who gathered to endorse an agenda of American hegemony labeled Shield of Americas.
Like the Department of War and his effusing assertion of warrior ethos, it comes across like another one of his labels, this time to project his draft dodging as a military maneuver.
The selection seems to have checked a couple of his personality boxes…placed the stamp of his character on his Security Project.
Hard to think that there is so much serendipity in the world… that his pick of 12 would just happen to share so many cross -connects with his submerged moral baselines.
The similarities in social failures are hard to miss, starting with Trump’s 34 count felony record.
Bolivia’s President, Rodrigo Paz Pereira, for example, is son of former President Jaime Zamora Paz, known as a dirty handed public official linked to his nation’s drug trafficking.
No, not scholarly assertion that Trump’s father, a recorded rogue, would have had any influence on his penchant for racketeering and his fancy of Paz. Just ‘coincidence’.
Javier Milei of Argentina, the chainsaw guest at Trump’s rallies, is just as uniquely qualified. He and his family are steeped in corruption charges, not excluding ‘misdirection’ of Government funds.
Jose Antonia Kast oves Jesus but hates his neighbor with such a passion that his advocacy for deportation of ‘illegals’ was the pride of his campaign platform. Catching Trump’s eye with vernacular like “sustained outflow of irregular migrants” and “migration is not a human right” was one thing.
Then, he built crossing barriers in a Border Shield plan between neighbors, Bolivia and Peru. And the love fest was on.
Did we mention Trump’s Christian leanings with Spiritual Advisors Mark Burns and Paula White, both of whom are perpetrators of legal transgressions?
It’s the type of DNA that motivates Trump and what qualified his picks for the Trump 12.
Fitting the mold, is Paraguay’s current President Santiago Pena , not short of the corruption blemish, through association to his predecessor. His decision to relocate his embassy to Jerusalem along with a strong anti immigrant, anti gay agenda, qualified him to be part of the ‘Shield’.
Then, there is Louis Abanader of the Domincan Republic, a professed Christian with anti gay and anti immigrant practices. Building a wall to keep out Haitian migrants was undoubtedly a qualifier for the Trump 12. Add to that, his scandal ridden government and the bird’s of feather mantra is applicable.
Nayib Bukele of El Salvador is no different to the preceding selectees. His Christo, anti immigrant, anti gay agenda was so well received by Trump that his first ‘kidnapped’, no -due-process victims for deportation were warehoused at El Salvador’s Center for Confinement of Terrorism CECOT.
That the warehousing of ‘illegals’ cost American Tax payers approximately $6m, amongst a bundle of ther benefits, is as outrageous as them being sent there, in violation of America’s laws guaranteeing due process.
Bukele was, therefater, invited to the White House to mock the nation through an ‘oopsie’ with the approval of Trump just to underscore the is the kind of galling disrespect that he has unleashed upon America, in the name of lwadership, law and order.
Rodrigo Chaves Robles of Costa Rica and Daniel Noboa of Ecuador come with their personalized forms of corruption.
Naboa Bannana’s coacaine runs to Europe and Chaves’ misdirection of Government funds for a personal home are not unfamiliar territory to Trump. His business portfolio has a similar assortment of transgressions …hence the affinity, we’re thinking.
Like the others, Panama’s José Raúl Mulino comes with a similar portfolio of legal violations – committed whether appealed or dismissed – which seems to be the catch the net was cast to pull in.
Then there’s Honduras.
Its previous president, Juan Orlando Hernández, received a pardon by Trump, on December 1st 2025, from 45 years of imprisonment. His crime was complicity in moving more than 4000 tons of Cocaine to America. The new President, Nasfry Asfura ,was elected amidst accusations of American interference. Asfura supports an agenda of anti immigrant and anti human rights.
This makes him a snug fit for the Shield of Americas.
Marco Rubio met with Asfura as president elect – strange for portfolio of Secretary of State– and after Hernandez was pardoned. Curious timing, some say, given the play of Hernandez’ assets available for ‘compensation’ and his desire to return home to live a normal life, which would have required the cooperation of the new overseer of national security.
The thread of corruption, direct or angled, runs through many Leaders who were hand picked to be part of Trump’s Shield.
Per reports, the assembly was there to listen not participate. Trump and his team did all the talking, all the initiative proposals.
Recall of Cuban doctors from neighboring countries, where they mostly served the disadvantaged, was a prevailing cloud of Trump’s reach into the countries he now terrorized. Terms like ‘Extortion Diplomacy’ were coined, given the overtones of use of lethal force, irrespective of target.
Then it became the Donroe Doctrine , elevating the ego more than the stature of Trump, whose draft dodging will forever mock his attempts at military might.
Completing the Shield of America’s are Guyana’s Irfaan Ali and Trinidad’s Kamla Bissessar.
Though both countries have become shipment points for drugs bound for other continents, it’s not lost on the political world that they are natural resource holders of billions of barrels of oil in which America’s Exxon has significant extraction and exploratory investments.
It’s an investment Trump robustly supports, as a spoil of diplomatic conflict.
He has been demanding billions of dollars for Venezuela’s oil and that companies deal directly with America. It’s oil piracy, if our opinion were to be documented.
That’s why we were curious to hear Guyana’s President’s national report on a meeting that has such security implications for the country. If we missed it, we apologize but so far nothing can be found.
But we’re interested to know what part of Trump’s Right Wing agenda now governs Guyana’s Laws and by extension, its Constitution.
The MAGA ingredient he has exported in this Shield indulgence to distract from his expanding transgressions, per opinions, along with his failure to include Mexico, Brazil and Columbia, affirm the lack of seriousness of the Shield.
Mexico,Brazil and Columbia are homes to the activities that the Shield is designed to eradicate.
Deciding that their politics don’t align with his America First Agenda asserts that the Shield
was crafted to anticipate acquiescence and not collaboration.
Being unable to have a working relationship with the leaders of countries in your “backyard” — Mexico, Brazil, Columbia – the ones presenting the greatest challenges to what the shield purports to represent, verifies Trump’s fear of push back and dialogue, as opposed to the monologue of the Shields foundation, per reports.
And if, as he says, the Shield is partially to keep the Chinese foot print out of the Region he would have to be more of a strategist than a showboat. His homework would have shown that Guyana, like Trinidad , has $billions in obligation to China, not excluding country patrimony, through their Belt and Road Initiative.
These are in addition to financial obligations incurred through prior initiatives, predating the Belt and Road.
So much for cheap camoulfage.
For all of its ‘non shield’ characteristics, Trump may have gotten one thing out of his conference.
The last time his resort, Doral , made headlines it was in connection to a bug infestation that he denied
but settled.
If hopes for its restoration to upscale status was intended by hosting the Shield meeting there, we’re unsure.
But we’d sure like to know what each country paid to attend this conference, an apparent end unto itself.
Trump never misses an opportunity for a grift.
Not us, Donald.
We’re just quoting an opinion we believe.
