The Art Of The Deal

With regard to Trump’s blustering style, throwing up straw men and knocking them down—it’s all part of The Art Of The Deal. That’s what Alastair Crooke argues. Certainly that style works well in America, to a domestic audience. Trump is very good at constructing a narrative around himself. The story line is always that someone has screwed up, that some foreigners have taken advantage of our good nature, and here comes Trump to save the day—in 24 hours! I built umpteen hotels, I can do this.

The question is, how far will that get him with foreign leaders? Never forget—Trump was instrumental in setting this horrible war in Ukraine in motion. Anyone who thinks Putin isn’t extremely angry about this needs to seriously guess again. Blustering negotiation tactics are likely to result in a brusque, ‘Shove it!’

Alastair Crooke explains all this—and what might work:

People are seething about women and children dying--pictures of children with their limbs off and things like that. I mean, really angry.

What will Trump be able to do? I think it's going to be very difficult for Trump unless he listens. I read "Art of the Deal." I know what he does. He waves a big stick and he gets people on his team who shout loudly, 'We're going to bomb, bomb, bomb you.' And then when he has played that for a little while, then he slips in behind and does a deal. After all the loud noises and the sort of clashing and waving of sticks and so on. This won't work for diplomacy. It's maybe okay for business, real estate. I don't know--I'm not in that field. But it it won't work.

Now, if he listens, actually, Putin gave him the answer. You will remember in that first speech, I'm sure, because I know you listened to that. Putin said, 'It was a great mistake to end the intermediate missile treaty [INF] in 2019. I think America made a mistake.' Well, it was Trump who did it. I think Putin is giving him a very clear signal, saying, 'Don't come here and tell me what to do with Ukraine and this and that. You come here and you say, Now, Mr Putin, I thought that was very interesting what you said about the intermediate missile system treaty, about limiting it. Now, what do you have in mind? What are your thoughts about this, and how do you see it going on?' And then afterwards, then the conversation might turn to Ukraine. But you don't go in like this, 'What's your bottom line? Come on, let's cut a deal!' It's not going to be like that. But if he was listening, that was a clue. 'Say to me, that was an interesting comment, maybe we should explore it.' That's all, and then he'll get there. He won't get there by sending some general, his envoy, to beard Putin in his lair or whatever he imagines.

So I think it's going to be difficult. And in Iran more so, because he [Trump] was the one who murdered Soleimani, and it still rankles, deeply--not just with the elites but with the [Iranian] people. He [Soleimani] was like a football star, he was a man of the people, and they loved him. So [Trump]'s not going to find it that easy to get over it.