It's so ridiculous. From an outside perspective the US starts cackling wildly and making threats (and they do seem to delight particularly in trying to humiliat

It's so ridiculous. From an outside perspective the US starts cackling wildly and making threats (and they do seem to delight particularly in trying to humiliate their targets), then when people think they won't actually do it they start implementing them to remove any doubt. Then the final step is to say "oops, give us a second, like maybe a month." Like, they've played their hand already, do you think everyone's just going to assume everything is fine? Any competent world leader, include "The West" which the US seems to think it owns completely, should now be scrambling to cut the US out as much as possible and they've got good company to go to with all the other countries being bullied. It's practically a matter of pride at this point to cut the US off as much as possible.