Understanding Trump

Understanding Trump
The View from the Middle

I still remember the first time Brenda and I went to buy a house. She walked into the first house we visited and began to tell the realtor and the folks who lived there how much she loved everything. “Wow, this is a great family room! I just love your back yard! Kevin, did you notice that the washer an dryer are brand new?” After I left the house, which we did not buy, I explained the fundamentals of negotiations with Brenda.
“Honey” I said, “ If you want to help me get the cost of a house down, you may want to point out some of its deficiencies, rather than focusing on its assets.” I told her she could always tell me about the advantages of any house when we were in private. That’s pretty basic, but we were young and I was in sales, not Brenda, and we were learning as we went along.
Donald Trump actually wrote the book on negotiations called The Art of the Deal, and he is negotiating all the time. In his previous life, he was negotiating for properties and I’m sure he didn’t start bargaining by pointing out the great qualities of the land and or buildings he was interested in buying. I’m confident, however, that he made the seller aware of every shortcoming he noticed and of every burden he would have to endure if he purchased a property.
Now he is President of the United States and he hasn’t changed a bit, and I wouldn’t encourage him to. As President, if you wanted something from NATO, would go out in public and tell the world what a wonderful organization they were and what good work they do? No! You might, however, tell them that they were obsolete, and that’s exactly what Donald Trump did.
This week, Trump had a meeting with Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary General of NATO, and lo and behold Jens agreed to focus more on terrorism and making sure that member nations lived up to their commitments to defense spending in each of their countries. If I’m not mistaken, that’s exactly what Trump wanted. Negotiations 101.
During his campaign he called China the great currency manipulator, and many would have agreed with him. He warned that things would need to change with China in the area of trade. Last week he had a meeting with China’s President, Xi Jinping, during which he pumped 59 Tomahawk missiles into Syria. Not only did Xi Jinping finish his meetings with Trump, but when he got home to China he ordered coal shipments from North Korea returned as a signal of their displeasure with Kim Jong Un’s behavior.
And when China abstained on the UN vote denouncing Syria’s chemical attack on its own citizens, this was another huge victory for Trump. And what did Trump have to give up? He simply said that he didn’t believe China was a currency manipulator any more. In my opinion, that’s small price to pay to get China’s help with the two maniac leaders in North Korea and Syria.
The lame steam media, in either a state of confusion or denial, has jumped on Trump for what they call “flip-flopping”. This just proves two things. First, they still don’t get Trump and the support he received from mainstream America. Second, they have little to no interest in actual results and treat Trump like a house they are trying to buy. Ignore the positives and focus on the negatives…at all costs.
More to come on “Understanding Trump” but enjoy this first installment!