Last week, when the US president stopped waving a stick at Greenland, it was claimed once again that Trump Always Chickens Out. And perhaps he does. But who suffers in the end?
For the US, Taco is no more than a loss of face. For the rest of the world, it poses a strategic dilemma. After all, if the president can be counted on to renege on his threats at the eleventh hour, the incentive to hedge against America — an expensive business, that — is correspondingly weaker. Why not just wait him out?