America First, Rules Last: The US is Now a Rogue State

“Rogue state” has long been a label applied by the United States to its enemies. It’s been aimed at governments that ignore international law, threaten their neighbours, and treat rules as optional. Think Russia, North Korea, and Afghanistan under the Taliban, etc.

Under the Trump Regime, the US now fits its own definition. Not because Americans are “bad”. Not because democracy has vanished overnight. But because the world’s most powerful country is acting as if its power is a permission slip: to invade, bully, punish international referees, coerce allies, and deploy its own troops at home to supress dissent.

If that's not rogue-state behaviour, what is?

Venezuela was probably the moment that the mask finally slipped. On 3 January 2026, the Trump Regime attacked Venezuela and kidnapped its President Nicolás Maduro, drawing condemnation and a warning from the UN Secretary-General about a “dangerous precedent”. Let’s be clear: this isn't a defence of Maduro. His regime has been brutal, corrupt, and repressive. The point is that the world has rules for dealing with “baddies”, and those rules exist precisely to stop powerful states from deciding that they can do whatever suits them.

Then came the part that should end any lingering illusions. Trump didn't even pretend this was about justice or democracy. He openly announced that the US would be “running” Venezuela and US oil companies would move in to profit from its oil industry.

That's not liberation. It's conquest with better PR.

Five symptoms of a rogue superpower

Rogue states are defined by patterns. And the Trump Regime has already checked most, if not all, of these boxes in its first year alone.

(1) Aggression first, law later. Venezuela is the sharpest example because it was so brazen, and the international legal footing is so thin under the UN Charter framework. When a superpower normalises this behaviour, it invites imitation and accelerates the collapse of restraint.

(2) Threats, bullying and annexation. Trump has ramped up talk of taking over Greenland, forcing Denmark to push back publicly. He has also repeatedly floated Canada as a potential “51st state”. That is not normal statecraft. It is coercive imperial language.

(3) Attacking the referees. Rogue states hate accountability. The Trump Regime has sanctioned and threatened international oversight mechanisms, including actions tied to the International Criminal Court and a UN Special Rapporteur. You do not have to agree with every UN official to understand the danger of punishing the people tasked with investigating abuses and defending human rights globally.

(4) Using soldiers at home as a political tool. Trump has deployed US troops and federalised forces to control the US's own citizens. When leaders treat the military as a workaround for civilian politics and policing, democratic guardrails buckle.

(5) Coercion and profiteering as policy. Rogue states don't just break rules, they use power to force outcomes. And they treat other people’s sovereignty and resources as the prize. Venezuela makes this explicit: military force, regime removal, and then open talk of the oil and profits. That's the logic of extraction politics - not international order. Trump's wide-ranging weaponisation of tariffs follows the same pattern of coercion.

A rogue superpower makes everyone less safe

When smaller states go rogue, the world can contain them. When the most powerful nation on Earth goes rogue, the world becomes a free-for-all. Especially when that state was once relied upon as one of the world's strongest defenders of the rules-based order.

Venezuela is another warning flare: if you can bomb a capital, kidnap a head of state, and talk openly about taking control of the oil, you're not defending the rules-based order. You're demonstrating that rules are for other people.

"America first" has clearly become "rules last". And it's not just America’s enemies who need to take up to it.

Under the Trump Regime, the US has become a rogue state.