Trump's Hardline Strategy Faces Major Tests Amid Escalating Standdowns With Iran and Canada

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.” It is a commentary on the extreme disruption of the Trump era that Canada, one of America’s most loyal friends, has found itself in a similar state of economic warfare with the US as Iran, one of Washington’s worst foes.

The Trump administration left no doubt Monday what it wants as it fights a trade war with Ottawa and a shooting war with Tehran. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced an “economic onslaught” against Iran’s global financial connections, drawing an analogy with the D-Day invasion that turned the tide in World War II. Trump, meanwhile warned on social media that “The U.S.A. will always be far bigger, richer, and stronger than Canada,” adding, “Someone should get these clowns to ‘fall in line.’”

The administration’s rhetoric suggests that Trump is now sending the US economy to war in hopes of chalking up a lopsided trade deal with Canada and finally bringing about the downfall of Iran’s regime. However, the way forward remains uncertain on both fronts because the president often backs down when the economic consequences of his attempts to assert his authority become clear.