I haven't seriously studied the Punic Wars, and all this is from memory, but the one with Hannibal pretty early on started with one of the worst defeats in Roma

I haven't seriously studied the Punic Wars, and all this is from memory, but the one with Hannibal pretty early on started with one of the worst defeats in Roman military history, I think you'd have to go to Augustus for the next one of that level or so. But after that, he wasn't able to take Rome, and the Romans refused battle in Italy. Instead, they eventually kicked enough ass in Africa that Hannibal was recalled to there, where he eventually lost. I think that was the 2nd, and the 3rd was simply finishing off a weak Carthage so it would never threaten Rome again, "Carthage delenda est" and all that. Neither fits the pattern you're looking for. The number 1 thing we should focus on is keeping the sea lanes open. Everything else after that is gravy, and indeed, no longer playing "world cop" now that the Cold War is over is one of many areas where Trump and the people who voted for him are aligned. As for other examples, maybe the Norman conquest of Britain? But that's seriously complicated in cause, and I'm not sure Britain counted as a wealthy nation back then. Ah, that's a key, look for battles where the king was a participant and got killed in it. Resistance tends to fall apart after that. And an "all out invasion" of the US is physically impossible prior to e.g. taking out our hunter-killer subs and otherwise securing a logistics line, unless you think Canada or Mexico/Latin America are up to the job, and there "a rifle behind every blade of grass" suffices.