Donald Trump’s presidency rests on the premise that he and the United States are so powerful that allies and enemies alike must submit to his will.
His break with decades of US foreign policy doctrine is laced through his speeches and national security strategies. It was best explained in January by top aide Stephen Miller, who told CNN’s Jake Tapper that “iron laws” dictate a real world that is “governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power.”
But the philosophy faces its most serious tests in deepening showdowns with Iran and Canada.
Iran has defied the might of the US military for six months in a war Trump started but has been unable to end.
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney, who shut down trade talks with Washington, has meanwhile argued more forcefully than any other Western leader that the US under Trump “has changed.” He told his country Saturday that Trump was using “economic integration as a weapon.”
