Jackson Diehl writes:

When the postmortems are written about President Trump’s foreign policy — sooner, we have to hope, rather than later — one phrase will stand out as a hallmark of failure: “maximum pressure.”

Much of this president’s international engagement has been a hodgepodge of impulsive and contradictory actions. But to the extent there is a Trump doctrine, it amounts to this: Use tariffs, sanctions and other means of economic pressure to compel U.S. adversaries — and, as often, allies — to accede to White House demands.

The amount of this pressure has varied from China to South Korea and from Ukraine to Mexico. So have the results. But in three cases — North Korea, Iran and Venezuela — Trump’s explicit policy has been “maximum pressure.” And in those instances, the record at the moment is clear: maximum ­failure. [Continue reading…]