Saying that Donald Trump is unpredictable could be the understatement of the year. Humans hate living in uncertainty, which is a sign of the times, especially when the US President thrives on “playing the game” while the rest of us squirm, drowning in our opinions of what we think is going on.
I recently watched the Netflix documentary “The Apprentice.” It’s a docudrama about Trump’s early days in business and career in real estate. Infamous attorney Roy Cohn greatly influenced Trump and became his mentor during the 1970s and 80s. Cohn taught Trump about media relations and highly recommended the following rules, which have personified the President’s business and negotiation strategy until today:
- Attack, attack, attack
- Admit nothing, deny everything
- Always claim victory
If we research his 1987 book, “The Art of the Deal,” Trump lists several winning tactics for successful negotiations. From the list, I selected the following 4, which give us an idea of his perspective when he soon meets with President Vladimir Putin to reach an agreement regarding the end of the war in Ukraine.
- Think big – “If you’re going to think you might as well think big.”
- Maximize the options – “I never get too attached to one deal or one approach – “I keep a lot of balls in the air because most deals fall out, no matter how promising they seem at first.”
- Use leverage – “The worst thing you could possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. That makes the other guy smell blood, and then you’re dead.”
- Have fun – “Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.”
Trump is a businessman at heart. That makes him so different from anyone else who has sat in the Oval Office. Because of his “out of the box” perspectives and his attack, attack, attack tactic, he’s hugely disconcerting to anyone expecting business-as-usual decisions. Love him or hate him, I recommend not getting too excited or disappointed with what Trump says but with what he actually does.
Final Thoughts
I’ve been on and off the Trump bandwagon several times since he was elected and, especially since January 20th. Most critical for me has always been the existential dangers of never-ending wars and a potential thermonuclear war that would annihilate all life on the planet. The upcoming meeting between Trump and Putin will hopefully be a significant initial step towards sustainable peace. If reason and diplomacy have their day and a peaceful solution is achieved, it could lead to a domino effect, inspiring other countries to resolve their differences diplomatically instead of resorting to conflicts and wars.
At home, Trump is “grabbing the bull by its horns” with sweeping and emphatic changes that have caught many by surprise, especially the Democratic Party. The recent confirmations of Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Head of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Kash Patel as Director of the FBI will surely bring new and innovative policies confirming that the US is indeed heading in a new and revolutionary direction. If the upheaval we’ve already experienced during his first month in office indicates how his final term will play out, all I can say is… hold on to your hat cause “it’s gonna be one hell of a ride”
