Among the more stupid utterances from our most stupid president was Trump's assertion of a Donroe Doctrine because people "hadn't heard about the Monroe Doctrine." That's always a tell that he has just learned something. Now, most anyone with a working knowledge of US History remembers the Monroe Doctrine, but the reason they remember it is often muddled.
The Monroe Doctrine was largely the brainchild of John Quincy Adams, Monroe's Secretary of State and an experienced diplomat. Quincy Adams had been our minister to Russia during the Revolution when he was about 19 years old. The situation was that during the Napoleonic Wars, Spain had been both weakened and liberalized during Napoleon's conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Existing elites in the Spanish New World colonies were upset at the democratic and anti-clerical reforms coming from the puppet government in Madrid, so Continental Spanish America rose up in wars of independence stretching from Mexico to Argentina.
After Napoleon had been defeated and the forces of monarchical conservatism had created the Concert of Vienna to maintain order in Europe, they looked westward to reestablish Spanish control of the New World. Britain, who had benefitted from the newly opened ports and was ideologically disposed to freer trade, wanted to enlist American help in guaranteeing Spanish America's independence.
Adams realized that the real guarantor of that independence was the British Navy. Still, riding the wave of American nationalism that resulted from the War of 1812 (fought against the British, and therefore making it hard to visibly align with Britain), Adams wrote the doctrine that the New World was to be free from further colonization of any kind, and it was American policy to guarantee this. In return - in a laughable boast at the time - the US would remain aloof from European affairs.
Very few people on either side of the Atlantic took much note of the Doctrine at the time. It was not a law or treaty, it was just something James Monroe said. Britain made sure no one crossed the Atlantic to reinstate Spanish colonialism, until the Civil War came. With both the US and UK preoccupied by the war, France installed a Hapsburg prince, Maximillian, as Emperor of Mexico. Once the war was over, Grant moved a full army to the Rio Grande, France withdrew support and Maximillian died before a Mexican firing squad. The Monroe Doctrine was revivified a bit there.
However, the real prominence of the Monroe Doctrine came at the end of the 19th century, with America's war against Spain. This conflict focused American military planning on the building of the Panama Canal after the war and this in turn led to America - a country founded on anti-imperialism and self-determination, which the Monroe Doctrine buttressed - becoming an imperial power. We seized and held Puerto Rico, Guantanamo Bay and would later help wrest Panama from Colombia.
Teddy Roosevelt would issue his corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, stating the US was the sold policeman and debt collector for the Western Hemisphere, especially the Caribbean. Many of the small countries rimming the Caribbean were deeply in debt to European powers and incapable of paying those debts off, at least in part due to the corruption in their Customs Departments. Because most revenues at the time came from import duties, control of the Customs Houses was a great way to get rich. This had been true in the US as well, until civil service reform helped end that corruption. Roosevelt initiated a period of American bullying and quasi-imperialism that lasted until his cousin, Franklin, began the Good Neighbor policy.
To recap: The original Monroe Doctrine was an expression of America's deep antipathy towards imperialism. In the late 19th and early 20th century, it actually became a lever to shift America into a quasi-imperial power, leaving the US very much hated until FDR reversed that policy. Since then, America had vacillated between supporting and opposing democracy in the Caribbean basin.
What Donald Trump is expressing in his Donroe Doctrine is a return to the worst of Teddy Roosevelt's imperialism but ramped up to 13 out of 10. TR - and Wilson with his invasion of Mexico - embraced the sort of paternalistic racism that at least had benevolent intentions - as misguided as they were. TR took over Customs houses in order to forestall European creditors from coming in and doing the same. Wilson invaded Mexico, because they were under a terrible miliary dictator during a revolution. Neither wanted or certainly stated such a naked statement of intentions to loot those countries.
Donald Trump's operational persona is and always has been that of a wannabe Mafia Boss. He uses threats and boasts to cow opposition, but as we have seen, he usually backs down when he's opposed with sufficient resolve. This bullying persona meshes with Don Trumpeone, the insecure mob boss who needs to display dominance and opulence, because deep down, he knows he's the son his parents were disappointed in.
Trump is stripping away even the pretense of paternalism in favor of naked predation. In the Puzo/Coppola mythology of the mob, the first Don Corleone was a protector of the poor immigrants of New York, whereas Michael becomes simply a ruthless, heartless killer. Trump is that ruthless killer, devoid of human connection or feeling, alone in his darkened mental landscape and seeing the entire world as either wolves or sheep, and visualizing himself as the biggest wolf of all.
This is, to borrow a phrase from conservatism, deeply un-American.
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