The reach of American might is rapidly spreading in real time.

In the aftermath of recent U.S. military action in Venezuela, the Trump administration is considering targeting even more countries.

Has the President's America first promise faded giving rise to what some have called the Don Road

doctrine.

Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Tuesday, January 13,

26. What months ago may have simply sounded like familiar bluster from President Donald Trump

has now taken on a deadly serious tone. What are the president's plans for countries like

Greenland, Colombia, Cuba, and beyond? For more on that, I'm now joined by USA Today, White House

correspondent, Francesca Chambers. It's good to have you here, Francesca.

Thanks, Dana. That's a long list of territories for us to cover.

We need to start with Iran because a lot happened over the weekend. And Trump has definitely

amped up his rhetoric. What's happening there? Well, the president says that he is looking at

some very strong options when it comes to Iran and then he'll make

a determination. But no decisions have been made yet about what the president might do in

response to these protests. President Trump had previously said that if they start shooting,

then we'll start shooting. But it isn't entirely clear at this point

what kind of response militarily or otherwise that the president may take to these protests.

And while visibility into the situation in Iran has been difficult and we've been unable to verify this number.

The U.S.-based human rights activist news agency says that the death toll is around 500 people.

Why is the president focused on Greenland?

Was there a pressing national security issue at play here?

Or is this primarily about gaining control of natural resources?

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