President Donald Trump's recent actions, from controversial trade tariffs to installing John Bolton as national security advisor, could hurt U.S. foreign policy goals in North Korea and Iran.

Trump's decision to impose duties on up to $60 billion worth of Chinese imports, for example, comes at a time when Washington needs Beijing's help to rein in a nuclear-armed Pyongyang, said Wendy Sherman, a former under secretary of state for political affairs at the U.S. State Department who was the lead American negotiator for the Iran nuclear agreement.

The U.S. has long pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping's government to apply more pressure on the rogue state in the hopes of bringing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to the negotiating table.

And the president's move to replace H.R. McMaster with policy hawk Bolton, who Sherman described as "a man who has never seen a war he does not want to wage," could add more risk into the mix, especially ahead of a historic summit under consideration for Trump and Kim.