Donald Trump is, however, a very different president from John F. Kennedy. Whereas Kennedy endorsed the burden of American exceptionalism to “assure the survival and the success of liberty” at “any price” or “hardship”, Trump promises to prioritise “America first”.

The rhetoric, however, goes beyond defending the homeland, also laying claim to the western hemisphere. Narco-terrorists are not being removed from the western hemisphere but our hemisphere – for Hegseth: “The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighbourhood.”

While Trump is seen as breaking with many US international objectives, in regarding the Americas as Washington’s neighbourhood he adheres to one of its oldest: the Monroe Doctrine. First articulated by president James Monroe in 1823, the doctrine declared the United States as the unilateral protector of the western hemisphere. In promising to eradicate narco-terrorism, at face value at least, Trump could be considered as continuing the tradition of acting as the Americas’ defender.