The best spin I could put on it is that it's a deliberate negotiating tactic - that Trump feels that, by threatening everything, he gets a more favorable deal f

The best spin I could put on it is that it's a deliberate negotiating tactic - that Trump feels that, by threatening everything, he gets a more favorable deal from people who just want the chaos to stop. Even if true, there are two problems with this approach. First, it may work well in New York real estate, but it is less clear that it works well in international diplomacy. Not every country wants their immediate future to be at risk from whatever flavor of hardball the president is currently employing; some want to insulate themselves from that risk as much as possible. The second, related problem is that international relations are not a zero-sum game. America has gained more from an international order that is orderly and rules-following than it would from exploiting everyone else as hard as possible.