Afrasianet– Ahmed Al , Dabash - At the start of his second term, during his inaugural address on January 20, US President Donald Trump declared:
"From this day on, our country will prosper and be respected again around the world. We will be the object of jealousy of every nation, and we will no longer allow ourselves to be exploited. During every day of the Trump administration, I will simply put America first."
"Our sovereignty will be restored, security will be restored, and the balance of justice will be restored. Our top priority will be to build a proud,
prosperous and free nation. America will soon be greater, stronger, and more superior than ever."
"From this moment on, America's decline is over." "God saved me to make America great again," he said. He also expressed his desire to change "the Gulf of Mexico name to the Gulf of America," and announced his intention to "send American astronauts to insert the American flag on Mars." "We are one people, one family, one glorious nation under the leadership of God," he concluded.
But the most controversial statement came at the end of January 2025, when Trump revealed in an interview his intention to restore the Panama Canal, saying bluntly: "We built it, we paid for it, and we will not give it up forever" (Reuters-2025).
He also hinted at the possibility of annexing Greenland and Canada, saying, "Greenland is pristine land, rich in resources, and closer to us than some of our states" (Associated Press, January 27, 2025).
Through this speech, Trump brought to the fore a deep ideological concept from America's political history, the concept of "manifest destiny," which emerged in the forties of the nineteenth century and morphed into a nationalist doctrine justifying expansion in the name of "divine will."
Trump's declaration that "America's golden era begins now," and the stitching of the American flag on Mars, was not just election propaganda, but a revival of one of America's most dangerous doctrines: "manifested destiny," which justifies imperial expansion in the name of "divine will."
The roots of the idea: from extermination to empire
The idea of "manifested destiny" was born by the American journalist John O'Sullivan in 1845, who called on Americans to consider themselves a people chosen by divine providence, charged with spreading civilization (according to the Anglo-Saxon Protestant Western vision) across the American continent and then to the entire world.
According to this conception, "destiny" defined its purpose and chose "Anglo-Saxon Protestant whites" as the bearers of this message, enabling them to dominate Indian lands first, and then expand beyond natural geographical boundaries. "Destiny," as O'Sullivan saw it, must be drawn in a straight line toward a future dominated by America as a loyal and dominant power.
Although couched with a political and secular discourse, this doctrine carried a racial and religious superiority essence, introducing the idea that God favored "Anglo-Saxon Protestant whites" and made them "a people above all peoples," which contributed to justifying genocide against the indigenous population, American expansions such as the Louisiana Purchase (1803), the annexation of Texas (1845), the war with Mexico (1846-1848), the annexation of California, Arizona, and New Mexico, and the invasion of the Philippines, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico in the late nineteenth century.
This idea thus became an ideological cover that hides expansionist ambitions behind a moral veil, combining racial superiority with the divine will.
In the footsteps of O'Sullivan
In reviving this concept, Trump did not limit himself to symbolism, but used his vocabulary directly: expanding space, renaming the geography of others, and renewing concepts of national control.
These statements may sound populist, but they reproduce an American discourse that sees his country as an exceptional power, not subject to global standards, but rather reshaping it.
Although this idea began before the founding of the American state itself, its intellectual "manifestation destiny" later gave politicians cover to legitimize policies of conquest and domination, or isolation when needed.
Today, "manifested destiny" is not seen as a historical memory, but as a living approach that redefines the U.S. administration. This presence is clearly illustrated in Defense Secretary Pete Higsyth's American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free, where the idea's clear ideological extension, though not mentioned by name, is evident.
Domination, control, and restoration of state institutions (such as education, judiciary, media...) from the "enemy left" are all embodied in the content of the book, so that the old doctrine becomes a modern tool to re-Americanize America and cleanse it of everything that is inconsistent with the conservative and evangelical model it adopts.
Trumpian version
But the Trumpian version of this idea departs from the traditional moral cover that previous administrations used as pretexts for their interventions. Instead of slogans about "human rights" or "spreading democracy," Trump declares that the end is national interest, power, and hegemony.
In this context, some scholars argue that this shift returns the United States to the logic of ancient empires, when expansion was an end in itself, not a means to achieve higher principles.
The American historian Howard Zayn argues that "manifested fate has never been innocent, but an imperialist instrument covered in artificial morality," and Trump seems to have decided to remove this cover once and for all.
Accordingly, the "manifestation destiny" in its Trumpian version does not stop at geographical borders, but extends to space, technology, and perhaps the global economy.
The call to "recapture" regions such as Canada and Greenland reflects a perception of power based not only on influence, but on direct ownership. His statement that America should be the "master of space" also reflects a trend towards the militarization of space, in clear defiance of international agreements that prevent space from being turned into an arena for military conflict.
This new U.S. approach could produce serious international consequences, including rising nationalism elsewhere, an arms race in space, and the return of the discourse of colonialism and annexation to the forefront of international relations.
Bottom line: Trump's revival of the concept of "manifested destiny" is not just rhetoric, but a political tool that reflects a philosophy of governance based on domination and superiority, reshaping American hegemony in contemporary ways that transcend the boundaries of time and space.