The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir

by John Bolton

The risk of undermining the US dollar as the global reserve currency was theoretically important, but that risk existed independent of the effects of US sanctions. Other currencies already had major roles in international financial matters, and the advent of the euro created an even more significant competitor. On the other hand, some countries pegged their currencies to the dollar, and economists spoke of national economies’ being “dollarized,” sometimes by official decision and sometimes just through real-world practice. Trends were hardly all in one direction. In fact, the “threat” to the dollar’s status turned into simply one more Mnuchin argument when he was anxious about imposing sanctions and risking media criticism. As Wilbur Ross said in the context of Venezuela, Mnuchin often seemed more protective of US firms that were sleeping with the enemy than of accomplishing the mission we were trying to achieve. It is rare indeed in the hard, chaotic world of international affairs when the threat of action is actually more powerful than the action itself. If America’s economic swords had been sharper during the Trump Administration, we would have accomplished much more.