How the Trump Administration’s Venezuela Policy Just Doesn’t Add Up

Even for an administration given to a chaotic and improvisational foreign policy style, the first days of August were exceptional. In the space of a week, and in seemingly uncoordinated fashion, President Trump signed an executive order that prohibited all U.S. economic transactions with Venezuelan government entities, at the same time slapping secondary sanctions on others doing business with the Venezuelan government; the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) froze new obligations of what could amount to billions of dollars in international spending for development assistance, global health, and support for UN agencies and peacekeeping, among others foreign accounts; Assistant […]