What Some People Call Lying
Trump calls deal-making
Give me your lunch money or I’ll punch you in the stomach, is how most of us are exposed to Trump’s style of deal-making.
It’s so beautiful in its simplicity and effectiveness that even those who dislike Trump must admit he’s profoundly successful at conjuring up sloppy shakedowns that seem to work every, single, time.
It helps to be the president of a country where your Supreme Court gives you the power to be above the law.
It also helps if you have your finger on a nuclear button which can be justifiably intimidating to countries without much military power.
The pattern of Trump's deal-making is to throw out something preposterous and then walk it back while grabbing goodies along the way.
Sometimes those goodies overlap and intersect with us peasants and a trickle-down effect occurs and the country feels the deal is successful.
Most of the time, only billionaires and near trillionaires benefit.
A perfect example of Trump’s wielding his deal-making sword is what he did this week with Canada and Mexico. He threatened 25% tariffs and then backed down the same day, claiming to have secured more soldiers on each border to protect us from illegal immigration.
Are Trump’s threats just a manufactured Kabuki dance, designed to gain political points?
Does Trump truly care about tariffs?
It doesn’t matter, the flare-ups, chaos, and power trips that go along with being the ruler of the Free World, are the point.
We all have some of Trump's chaotic deal-making strategy in our everyday lives.
Most people know that if they threaten someone with a lawsuit, that threat alone might cause them to back down.
If you’re lucky, the person will back down, if they don’t, you can walk it all back with some kind of face-saving word salad….claiming victory out of the jaws of defeat.
Obedience is the only option for most leaders in the world when it comes to Trump.
It’s not a fair fight….but isn’t that how we want things to be….ruling the world with overwhelming economic and military power - an iron fist?
No other country in the world — including Russia and China — wants to fight with the United States of America.
They will lose.
Or they won’t….but THEY don’t seem to want to take the chance.
We’re used to politicians being held accountable for their past statements and actions and being called out when they behave hypocritically….but this requires someone willing to occasionally accept personal responsibility for their missteps and course correct.
Someone willing to threaten, bully, harass, and say the exact opposite of what they just said — sometimes within the same sentence — will simply lie, squirm, and bullshit their way out of any perceived (or actual) defeat.
When losing truly isn’t an option, everything’s on the table.
This kind of deal-making breeds distrust, anger, and profound disillusionment for those who believe in fairness, truth, and accountability.
Parents — justifiably — have to take a my-way-or-the-highway approach when teaching and disciplining their children….but Trump is not our Dad….and we’re not 3 years old.
My-way-or-the-highway works as a deal-making strategy…until it doesn’t….and someday….it won’t.
In the meantime, it’ll probably be easier on our psyches if we assume when Trump threatens something apocalyptic that it’s simply his first salvo and that he will walk it back as long as whoever he is jostling with parrots what he wants them to say.
Most agree that bullies back down when confronted.
Maybe that brut in elementary school was never going to punch me.
But I was too scared to take the chance.
He was just so much bigger than me.
Trump is huge too.
But I don’t want to give him my lunch money.
Do I have to?