ABSTRACT
This chapter examines patterns of behavior that lie behind the Trump administration’s discordant tactics and explains how the president’s pre-presidential experience plays a key role. It contains three sections. The first explains that the president is a ‘tactical opportunist’, and outlines his bargaining philosophy that is underpinned by a mythology that frames him as an expert negotiator. Section two considers two key methods. The first tactic comprises the administration’s ‘art of the deal’, with its approach to NATO, trade with China, Mexico and Canada, and negotiations over the North Korean nuclear program offered as examples. It also considers whether negotiations have worked in each case and posits that Trump’s threats in one negotiation are interconnected with others to enhance leverage. The second is the president’s use of the ‘rationality of irrationality’, which draws upon post-war strategic theory but is also consistent with his personality. Indeed, there is a symbiosis between the two tactics as the president’s rhetoric prior to and during negotiations is explicable as unpredictable maneuvering. The third and concluding section makes the case that President Trump employs a negotiation style that stems from pre-presidential business experience, considers whether these methods have achieved the objectives the administration has set itself and predicts it is unlikely Trump will deviate from these tactics for the remainder of his presidency.
