Trump side-stepped diplomacy on Iran, now asks China and others for help

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump relied on his gut and largely side-stepped diplomatic coordination as he made the decision to launch strikes on Iran with Israel. But now with the war’s economic and geopolitical consequences unfurling rapidly, he’s cajoling allies and other global powers to help mop up the mess. Trump says he’s asked roughly a half-dozen other countries to send warships to reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz, a consequential waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s traded oil flows. So far, none has committed. Trump even indicated he would use his long-planned trip to China to pressure Beijing to help with a new coalition meant to get oil tanker traffic moving through the strait — a notion that his Treasury secretary later downplayed. “I’m demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory, because it is their own territory,” Trump told reporters on Sunday night about the strait, while arguing that the shipping channel is not something the United States needs because of its own access to oil. It’s the type of bullying to action th

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