Trump's approach: Speak very loudly and carry a big stick

US President Donald Trump. Photo / AP

Any illusions that US President Donald Trump will run a dovish, non-interventionist foreign policy are rather quickly being dashed.

US Vice-President Mike Pence made a visit to the Demilitarised Zone between North and South Korea and issued an unmistakably stark warning to the North, pointing directly to Trump having struck Syria and used the "Mother of All Bombs" in Afghanistan.

"Just in the past two weeks, the world witnessed the strength and resolve of our new president in actions taken in Syria and Afghanistan," Pence said. "North Korea would do well not to test his resolve or the strength of the armed forces of the United States in this region."

Pence said that the United States prefers that North Korea would give up its nuclear arms peacefully, but that "all options are on the table".

That's a marked departure from the Obama Administration's policy of "strategic patience" with North Korea. And it's also a marked departure from Trump's rhetoric about staying out of foreign entanglements and focusing on the homeland first.

In the span of 10 days, Trump has taken unprecedented action in Syria, dropped an unprecedented bomb in Afghanistan, and is for all intents and purposes threatening North Korea.

Analysts believe Trump was struck by the ease of his actions in Syria a week and a half ago. In an interview with Fox Business, he almost gleefully recounted how he ordered missile strikes against the Syrian Government while eating dessert - "the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you've ever seen" - with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Then last week, the US military dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb it's ever used in combat while targeting Isis in Afghanistan. The bomb even had "MOAB" - short for the "Mother of All Bombs" - written on the side of it.

Trump and the White House didn't say whether the President himself authorised it, but the move practically screamed "TRUMP," and Pence's words yesterday strongly suggest Trump did it deliberately to send a message about his brand of foreign policy.

And that message doesn't sound much like Trump on the campaign trail. Instead of staying out of foreign conflicts, Trump seems to be gambling on strength and big talk/actions as a deterrent - essentially, threatening to get involved if hostile actors don't stay in line.

The flip side of that, of course, is when the other side tries to call your bluff.

President Barack Obama's experience with his Syria "red line" is Case Study No. 1 in how that can go poorly. And North Korea is already threatening to strike back, citing Trump's "reckless" aggression.

When those comments were made, the Trump Administration was vigorously denying an NBC News report that it was prepared to "preemptively" strike North Korea if it believed Kim Jong Un was about to test a nuclear weapon.

That apparently was too aggressive a characterisation for the Trump Administration's liking. But in the context of the big talk, big actions and big promises of action coming from the Trump White House, it's not that far afield of the picture we're getting of the Trump foreign policy.