The Dig MAGA Empire w/ Aslı Bâli and Greg Grandin
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Jan 16, 2026 
Aslı Bâli, a law professor specializing in international law and human rights, and historian Greg Grandin explore the MAGA model of U.S. imperialism. They dissect Trump's unique blend of resource-driven foreign policy and civilizational nationalism. The conversation delves into the revival of the Monroe Doctrine, the mixed motives behind intervention in Venezuela, and how U.S. aggression may provoke backlash in Latin America. They also connect the dots between foreign coercion, immigration, and domestic policing under Trump.
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Continuity And Rupture In MAGA Foreign Policy
- Trump's foreign policy is both continuity and rupture with past U.S. imperialism, blending old tactics with new naked coercion.
- Liberal institutions' failure to reckon with this history helped create space for MAGA imperialism to rise.
Resource Imperialism Meets Ethno‑Nationalism
- Aslı Bâli describes Trumpism as resource-driven imperialism plus ethno-national civilizational partitioning of the globe.
- This combines 19th-century expropriation aims with white Christian nationalist geopolitics.
Monroe Doctrine Recast As Property Deed
- Greg Grandin links Trump’s revived Monroe Doctrine to a territorial, non‑universal U.S. ambition in the Western Hemisphere.
- The new corollary treats the hemisphere as U.S. property rather than a community of sovereign states.
