Donald Trump likes to speak of himself in superlatives, and this much is well-deserved: No US president in modern history has launched as many ambitious foreign policy initiatives in so short a time. These include his attempts to transform the terms of global trade, end intractable wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and halt the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation across the Middle East without starting a war with Iran.

If he succeeds in all these ventures, even the most die-hard “never Trumper” will have to acknowledge his ability to bring change and closure where others failed. Equally, Trump loyalists must recognize thathis approach may well fail in ways that leave the world in immeasurably worse shape. And that would make him, in the words he directed at Joe Biden on Easter Sunday, “our WORST and most incompetent President.”

We seem perilously close to a Wile E. Coyote moment for this most radical of US administrations. That’s the scene........

© Bloomberg