So Trump will likely get his way in more cases than not. But he shouldn’t celebrate just yet, because the short-term payoff of strong-arming Latin America will come at the long-term cost of accelerating the region’s shift toward China and increasing its instability. The latter tends, sooner or later, to boomerang back into the United States.

Donald Trump’s belligerence toward Latin American leaders raises the prospect of a more concerted regional resistance, one its popular left bloc is well positioned to lead.