The Art of the Deal Break

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While Donald Trump has spent a lifetime creating the illusion that he is a skillful negotiator, his time in the White House has shown that he doesn’t make deals; he breaks them.

To anybody who has closely followed his career, that comes as no surprise. To Trump, The Art of the Deal, as he called the book that propelled him into the limelight, has always been about bullying, browbeating, and conning his business associates.

When he was primarily involved in real estate and branding himself, those tactics harmed only the investors whose money he squandered and the contractors he stiffed.

As president, however, the damage he is doing as a dealbreaker is incalculably greater. Trump is single-handedly destroying the reputation and trustworthiness of the United States on the global stage.

The current war in the Middle East is the perfect example.

A master dealmaker would have found a way to get Iran to agree to set aside its nuclear ambition and maybe bring the country back into the fold of the international community. And, by all accounts, an agreement that would have achieved the former and possibly paved the path toward the latter was in reach.

Immediately after the US and Israel attacked Iran, Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, who served as a mediator in the talks, said he was dismayed by what happened. “Active and serious negotiations have yet again been undermined. Neither the interests of the United States nor the cause of global peace are well served by this,” he said. “And I pray for the innocents who will suffer. I urge the United States not to get sucked in further. This is not your war.”

Just a day earlier, Albusaidi had appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation and proclaimed that the parties had achieved a breakthrough in getting Iran to agree that it will never obtain the nuclear material required to make a bomb.

“This is something completely new,” he said. “It really makes the enrichment argument less relevant, because now we are talking about zero stockpiling.”

His sentiments were echoed by Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi after the initial strikes.

“A deal was within reach. We left Geneva with [the] understanding that we’d seal a deal next time we meet,” he stated. “Those who wanted to spoil diplomacy succeeded in their mission. But it was Mr. Trump, yet again, who ultimately ordered bombing of the negotiating table.”

Perhaps he should have known that the president wasn’t interested in traditional diplomacy; it was all about him getting his way. As it always is.

As a real estate developer, Trump had a long history of refusing to pay small businesses and contractors he hired to do work for him. Then, with an army of lawyers at his disposal, he would tie them up in court and force them to simply give up, take less money, or go bankrupt.

As president, he is still using the same playbook. The main difference is that the lawyers have been replaced by the world’s most powerful military and the economic might of the United States.

What has not changed is that Trump only preys on the weak. As soon as he meets real resistance from an adversary with the means to fight back, he retreats.

China is a great example of a country that won’t allow itself to be bullied, and whenever the EU has shown a spine, the president has backed off, as with his threat to take over Greenland.

Similarly, he also tucks tail and runs whenever one of his schemes causes stocks to fall, which was especially apparent when his tariff threats backfired. That spawned the term TACO, which stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

That is what Iran, which is hopelessly outmatched militarily, is aiming for.

Last year, it offered only token resistance when the US attacked its nuclear facilities. This time, Tehran is punching back in a way that causes economic pain across the globe and especially in the United States.

And that caught the Trump administration flat-footed. But not only that, it is also serving up a blueprint of how to resist the president.

Obviously, standing up to a bully is no small feat. However, in the case of Trump, history has shown that it is the only effective course of action.

That doesn’t just apply to foreign policy.

For example, when Trump tried to coerce major US law firms into doing his bidding, a handful of them resisted and are now winning.

What that teaches any of the president’s targets, whether at home or abroad, is that the only option they have is to push back.

And that creates a lot of adversaries. There is no doubt that the US is the most powerful country on Earth. However, it is not strong enough to fight everybody, militarily or otherwise.

But that is what Trump is accomplishing by picking fights everywhere and turning allies into foes.

Almost worst of all is that he does it only for limited, short-term gains.

In just a year, he has upset the status quo of global trade without having anything to show for it — apart from higher prices for American consumers.

In the process, he is causing incalculable long-term damage to the US. It will take years to rebuild the relationships Trump is fraying with his combative style and by demonstrating that he cannot be relied on even if deals are reached.

Former partners like Canada, the EU, and Great Britain are forging new alliances because they no longer feel that the US can be trusted.

They’re right, of course. And it’s not just because Trump is a bully but also because he doesn’t uphold the deals that he does make.

Back home, congressional Democrats should also take note.

For example, the administration is illegally blocking or moving around funds that Congress appropriated for specific purposes.

To be fair, the Democrats know this.

“This administration is lawless to its core. Ever since the moment they took office, President Trump and Director [Russell] Vought [of the Office of Management and Budget] have been breaking the law,” said Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee.

“Day after day, this administration undermines the power of Congress, while Republicans sit idly by and let them do it. President Trump and Director Vought have nothing but contempt for the rule of law,” she added. “We must stand against this law breaking and protect our authority as a co-equal branch of government.”

Fair enough. Of course, the logical consequence is that Democrats should not make any deals with Trump.

It is a lesson that everybody should take to heart, whether it is opposition lawmakers, rogue regimes like Iran, former allies, law firms, universities, companies, or the contractors building the president’s ballroom.

Trump is a bully who cannot be trusted, and the only strategy that has proven to work against him is to fight back.