The Art of the Deal is Not a Diplomatic Negotiation |
Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair
President Trump continues to brag about his ability to make deals. Whether with tariffs, gaining mineral rights or even ending conflicts, he always comes back to his particular expertise. “I’ve spoken to President Putin, and my people are dealing with him constantly, and his people in particular, and they want to do something,” he said. “I mean, that’s what I do. I do deals. My whole life is deals. That’s all I know, is deals. And I know when somebody wants to make it and when somebody doesn’t,” he boasted at his joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.
His assumption, and the foundation of transactional politics, is that business deals and diplomatic deals are similar. As Fintan O’Toole recounted in The New Yorker: “Speaking of Greenland after the end of his first term, Trump recalled, ‘I said, Why didn’t we have that? You take a look at a map. I’m a real estate developer, I look at a corner, I say, I’ve got to get that store for the building I’m building,’ etc.” So if it’s Greenland, Canada, Panama or even Gaza, Donald Trump looks at the world from the same perspective, as a real estate developer.
But business deals and diplomatic negotiations are not the same. Business deals involve dollars and cents. Diplomatic negotiations involve countries and citizens. Business deals are often one-off transactions. Diplomatic negotiations are based on historic relationships with international ramifications. Business deals involve results on a spread sheet. Diplomatic negotiations include unquantifiable national prestige.
Let’s look at current U.S. Russian........