Forget soft power. It's all about hard bargains. Donald Trump is making good on his campaign promise of tariffs and is starting with his closest neighbours. We ask if it's all a big made-for-reality-TV drama that ends at the negotiating table. He has already hit pause on tariffs for Mexico. How much has the world's most powerful nation decided to throw its weight around? We gauge reactions.

Trump turned heads at his inauguration when he referenced William McKinley, the tariff-loving turn-of-the-20th century predecessor to Theodore Roosevelt, who tested the powers of the presidency and went to war with Spain to assert dominance over the Americas and the South Pacific.

On that score, Trump's threats to annex Panama seem to be yielding results, with the Central American nation telling his secretary of state that it's ready to allow Panama's participation in China's Belt and Road infrastructure initiative to expire. Will it be enough to quell talk of land grabs?

Editor's note: Since this programme aired, the US has also agreed to pause tariffs on Canadian imports. 

Produced by Théophile Vareille, Rebecca Gnignati and Ilayda Habip.