Trump’s Foreign Policy: The Popping Point of Maximum Pressure

We’re gaining momentum in our standoffs with China, Iran, and North Korea. So expect dangerous provocations.

Donald Trump promised to shake up U.S. foreign policy. He has certainly done that from the Middle East to Asia. The U.S. is currently engaged in a three-front, maximum-pressure standoff with China, Iran, and North Korea — involving everything from tariffs to possible military action and the strictest sanctions in memory.

At first, Trump critics saw these policy recalibrations as either impotent or counterproductive. Pessimists asserted that China, with a population four times the...