Trump may overplay his hand with threats

Three moves in the last week have exposed the limits of Donald Trump’s economic bullying. The U.S. slapped 50% tariffs on another $20bn of Canadian goods – then threatened the same rate on the cars, trucks, parts and steel that America Inc depends on. On Monday, the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, menaced Iran’s trading partners with exclusion from the U.S. financial network, hoping that coerci…