The Art of the (Weakest) Deal
If Trump or his people are negotiating for you, then you will lose: China, India, Russia, etc., showing how it's done.
China and India are fighting back against Trump’s “on-again-off-again” tariffs. They don’t believe the champion of the “art of the deal” is very good at deal-making, so they are calling his bluff. Many countries are calling his bluff. Like a parent who threatens to punish a child but never follows through, the threats eventually mock the parent in the child’s eyes. Donald Trump’s incompetence mocks our nation and makes us look weak.
Longtime adversaries India and China, concerned by President Donald Trump’s disorienting early moves in trade and diplomacy, are testing a fragile thaw in relations (India Edges Closer to China).
China has launched a massive PR campaign mocking Trump for being against free trade. In a very un-Chinese way, there is no disinformation, no typical Chinese lies. Beijing has decided to let Trump’s words and actions speak for themselves, and they have also applied the speeches of Ronald Reagan, their mortal enemy, to help Americans and others see that the greatest threat to the world’s economy is Donald Trump. India agrees, and with each passing day, they are getting closer to assuming an “Eff you, Trump” approach. Why? Because everyone knows that the only negotiating tactic Trump has turned into an art form is the waffle and the flip-flop.
If you don’t like Trump’s thoughts or actions regarding something, wait a day, and they will be completely reversed. This is what happens when bullies are confronted. Notoriously cowardly, bullies pick on the weak. Most economies, in some way or another, depend on good relations with the U.S. Trump knows this, so he is forcing them to kiss his ring. India and China are big enough to push back, and thankfully, they are. Sooner or later, Trump, the instigator of these soured relations, will have to cave, or, like an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal expressed, Trump could be impeached.
Trump’s weakness and laughably poor negotiating tactics have also been on display as he tries to broker a “peace deal” between Ukraine and Russia. To begin with, the only benefit Trump sees from talking about his BFF’s genocidal war against Ukraine is to remind the world that “I am not in agreement with this war. Had the 2020 election not been stolen from me, this war would never have happened.” Trump uses the suffering of the Ukrainian people to feed his mental illness by putting everything in the context of his bogus claims of voter fraud in 2020.
When he does start to talk about the war, the great deal maker toes the Kremlin’s bullshit propaganda line that Ukraine is at fault for defending itself. This was a reaction many Russians had in the early months of the war: If Ukraine would just surrender and stop fighting, Russia wouldn’t have to bomb the cities, schools, and hospitals. Trump and his criminally incompetent team also push this narrative. The mood is “If only Zelensky would stop fighting back and accept the terms, Trump would be regarded as a successful peacemaker.”
From the outset of Trump’s presidency, his hysterically inept Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, made it clear that Ukraine would have to give up land; would never become a member of NATO, and Russia would not be forced to pay reparations.” If there was ever any “why” to all of this, it is because “the war never should have happened had Trump not been cheated out of his election win in 2020.” Trump, after the atrocious attack on President Zelensky in the Oval Office, let it be known that the U.S. would not provide additional military support to Ukraine should they keep “fighting back.”
Frustrated with his inability to conjure a quick peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, President Donald Trump said he’s ready to “take a pass” if Russia and Ukraine can’t agree soon on a settlement — even though that retreat from diplomacy could have disastrous consequences for Ukraine and Europe (Ukraine-Russia Talks Founder).
When the dopey Steve Witkoff, the American real estate investor who is now negotiating on behalf of the United States for peace in Ukraine, met Putin in Moscow, he had a Beatlemania moment. Placing his hand over his heart when Putin entered the room off-camera, a bashful grin covered Witcoff’s face while he waited for the serial killer dictator to approach. After Putin extended his clammy hand for Witcoff to seize, Putin told him, “Follow me,” and off they set with the representative of the United States of America sheepishly in tow. Putin was again the alpha male, and anyone associated with Trump barely at beta level.
The basic impasse facing Trump and his negotiators is Russia’s refusal to make any compromises on major issues, according to several sources familiar with the talks. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, spoke for more than four hours with President Vladimir Putin this month. But the sources tell me Putin didn’t budge from his hard-line demands for Russia to gain Ukrainian territory and security dominance. Witkoff has tried to frame a proposal the Russian leader might accept.
Witkoff on Thursday presented to Ukrainian and European leaders a negotiating framework that emerged from the Putin meeting. But it included so many concessions to Moscow on security issues that the Ukrainian and European officials balked, sources told me. Russia would control the five regions it now occupies, and Ukraine would be banned from joining NATO, according to a report Friday by Bloomberg News (Ukraine-Russia Talks Founder).
Moscow has the king of the art of the deal. But this is where I agree that Trump is truly the most talented at the art of the deal. He is such an atrocious deal-maker that if you are on the other side, then you will always come out looking pretty. Moscow doesn’t have to do anything at all because it knows that attention-deficit-disordered Trump is just so stupid, he has no understanding of what the hell is going on. If you think I am being unfair, let me end it on this direct quote from Trump just two days ago.
Trump expressed his dismissive view of Ukraine this past week in rejecting the sale of Patriot air-defense missiles that might defend against Russian ballistic attacks like last Sunday’s strike on Sumy, which killed 35 people. “You don’t start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles,” Trump said (Ukraine-Russia Talks Founder).
Dumbass, Ukraine didn’t invade Russia!
And this is why Moscow will never make any compromises so long as Donald Trump is president.