Church history does not support Trump’s expansionism

Some Catholic voices online have been suggesting that the example of Spanish colonialism justifies the Trump administration’s expansionist foreign policy – including the threat to take Greenland by force.  Catholic podcaster Matt Walsh, with whom I recently had a lively exchange about these matters on Twitter/X, appeals to Catholic colonialism and also claims that a war to secure resources is "totally legitimate."  Others appeal to the Crusades, or to ancient Israel’s conquest of Canaan.  In a new article at First Things, I argue that all of these arguments are fallacious.  They ignore crucial moral and theological differences between the cases.  Church history provides no support for Trump’s jingoistic expansionism.