Trump claimed he was a great negotiator, and he still makes that claim, yet during his time in office I can't think of a single situation where he demonstrated any negotiation skills. What Trump calls negotiating are tactics that the rest of the world calls bullying. If he doesn't like an agreement he will renege on the agreement, then threaten no agreement until the other party gives him what he wants while Trump offers to concede nothing.
Negotiating is something you do with partners. With those you want to have good relationships with.
Bullying is what you do when you have power and don't want to share. It is also the tactic used by less intelligent people that don't realize that by creating bad will with their trading partner they are harming their future relationship with that partner. In the case of Trump and the USA that means many of the USA partners that Trump negotiates with and forces a Trumpian deal upon will, in the future, be more open to considering China or Russia for that partnership. Also these partners will be less likely to trust the USA to honor their agreements, and obviously Trump has proven that we can't be trusted to honor those agreements. Finally, they will be more likely to try to subvert deals and cheat on deals that they were forced into. This is not speculation, but based on decades of studies in sociology on human behavior.
I am not alone in my opinion. Better writers have expressed similar opinions about Trump's inability to negotiate: http://fortune.com/2016/07/19/donald-trump-negotiating-the-art-of-the-deal/
No comments:
Post a Comment