I'm not sure why you say Trump's approach is zero-sum or win-lose, I don't see it that way. Business leaders play hardball certainly,, but all parties know that any deal won't last or be beneficial unless each one receives what it needs and some of what it wants out of the deal - if not, it won't be a deal and the parties will go their separate ways. Not all, but a number of business leaders employ Trump's tactics, demand everything and settle for what they really need out of the negotiation. Trump approaches foreign relations with the assumption that all countries are looking out for their own best interests, and we don't need to do that for them or assume that they will look out for us. For several decades now, we have not been conducting our foreign policy with the basis of America first, and the consequences have been bad to very bad. Again, the deals that can be reached by assuming that each country takes care of its own interests will be good for both sides if they are negotiating in good faith, and if certain countries have ambitions to harm other countries, they must be restrained and convinced that doing so is not in their best interests. With Canada and Mexico, Trump is currently using the tariff threats to force them to do what they need to do to reduce the harm they are causing to America, namely, they must step up and take action to control the drugs and illegals they are allowing across their borders with us. These are actions Canada and Mexico should be doing anyway, we are just using strong encouragement to them to do it now. We will see how this works but it is far more realistic than policies of appeasement to bad actors (Iran, Hamas) or meddling in other countries' internal affairs and governments (too many to list).
I'm not sure why you say Trump's approach is zero-sum or win-lose, I don't see it that way. Business leaders play hardball certainly,, but all parties know that any deal won't last or be beneficial unless each one receives what it needs and some of what it wants out of the deal - if not, it won't be a deal and the parties will go their separate ways. Not all, but a number of business leaders employ Trump's tactics, demand everything and settle for what they really need out of the negotiation. Trump approaches foreign relations with the assumption that all countries are looking out for their own best interests, and we don't need to do that for them or assume that they will look out for us. For several decades now, we have not been conducting our foreign policy with the basis of America first, and the consequences have been bad to very bad. Again, the deals that can be reached by assuming that each country takes care of its own interests will be good for both sides if they are negotiating in good faith, and if certain countries have ambitions to harm other countries, they must be restrained and convinced that doing so is not in their best interests. With Canada and Mexico, Trump is currently using the tariff threats to force them to do what they need to do to reduce the harm they are causing to America, namely, they must step up and take action to control the drugs and illegals they are allowing across their borders with us. These are actions Canada and Mexico should be doing anyway, we are just using strong encouragement to them to do it now. We will see how this works but it is far more realistic than policies of appeasement to bad actors (Iran, Hamas) or meddling in other countries' internal affairs and governments (too many to list).