Now imagine how Bolton would react if a foreign power demanded that the United States give up its nuclear arsenal. Or drop its support for allies such as Israel. Or stop its subsidies to major corporations such as Boeing and Alcoa. Or end its spying on other countries. Or even usher President Trump out of office before his term expires.

Yet those are the rough equivalents of the demands the Trump administration is making on North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and China — simultaneously. Trump and his hard-line advisers have no strategy to achieve their ambitious objectives beyond acting tough and hoping for the best. And yet somehow they appear surprised that those countries are resisting U.S. pressure. Trump and his aides can’t imagine the United States surrendering on important issues of sovereignty, but they expect other countries to do so.

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Now, I am not drawing any moral equivalence between the United States and these dictatorships — as Trump himself does. I think we are right to demand that North Korea end its nuclear program, Iran its support for regional proxies, China its intellectual property theft, and Venezuela its illegitimate dictatorship.

But I believe those things because I believe in the importance of human rights, free trade and international law. Trump and Bolton don’t. They believe in no higher cause than raison d’état. As Trump told the United Nations: “As president of the United States, I will always put America first, just like you as the leaders of your countries will always and should always put your countries first.” Pyongyang, Beijing, Caracas and Tehran are simply following Trump’s advice to act in their own self-interests.

So, on what basis does Trump tell these countries — every bit as sovereign as the United States — how to behave? Having sacrificed the moral high ground, he is left with nothing but brute force: Do what we say, or else. The problem is that there is a yawning mismatch between his maximalist ends and minimalist means.

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All four of the rulers in question fear they cannot survive if they cave in to U.S. demands. Kim Jong Un thinks he needs nuclear weapons to avert a U.S. invasion or unification on South Korea’s terms. Xi Jinping thinks he needs an industrial policy and economic espionage to keep China growing and the Communist Party in power. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei thinks he needs to sponsor proxy groups and build missiles to maintain his regime’s legitimacy and deter enemies such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States. Nicolás Maduro thinks he needs to stay in power to avoid imprisonment or death.

In their minds, complying with U.S. demands is more dangerous than not complying. Cuba, Iran and North Korea have shown that regimes can survive prolonged U.S. sanctions, so Trump’s sanctions and tariffs don’t fill anyone with dread. These dictators might make a different calculation if they thought that noncompliance would bring a decisive U.S. military response. But by now they have all figured out that Trump is a paper tiger who growls and roars but ultimately shrinks from war.

I had expected that by now Trump would drop his hard-line demands and strike meaningless deals. He’s done it before: The biggest difference between NAFTA, which he hated, and the USMCA, which he loves, is the name. I still expect this will happen in other disputes, but for now Trump is hanging surprisingly tough, even though he is starting to suspect that Bolton’s hard-line advice is leading him toward failure in Venezuela, North Korea and Iran.

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The answer isn’t to cave in and call it a victory. Trump needs to align means and ends. In short, he needs to develop an actual strategy. Shocking, I know.

Trump should pick his battles rather than try to do everything at once; so, for example, he shouldn’t add Israel-Palestinian negotiations to a to-do list that is already way too long. He should marshal allies rather than alienate them — e.g., don’t start a new trade war with Europe while the old one with China remains unresolved. He should recognize that some issues don’t have an immediate solution: North Korea simply isn’t going to give up its nuclear weapons. And he should soften some of his demands. He might, for instance, have more luck ending China’s intellectual property theft than its state support of key industries. Or getting Iran to stop its nuclear program rather than its activities abroad — except, oops, Iran already agreed to that and Trump tore up the agreement.

Sooner or later, Trump needs to figure out that he isn’t going to simply bluff powerful adversaries into surrender. To become a truly effective dealmaker (something he has never been), he needs to see the world through his enemies’ eyes. But that would require a trait — empathy — that is utterly missing from his psychological makeup.