This is the most cogent, right-on-the money analysis of
President Donald Trump I have read to date; it is what I've been thinking and
intending to write for many months. Well done.
Leverage is the most effective tool in just about every
situation with the exception of my relationship with our dogs. Dogs don't
seem to care about leverage, and even though I have all the leverage in that
relationship, I never can use it.
Herewith, a few thoughts on your 5 rules:
1. The leader of Montenegro can tweet anything he
likes but it won't put the rest of the world into a collective bout of
hyperventilation. When the US President even so much as wears ill-fitting
trousers, the ink, digital and otherwise, flows and the talking heads make the
rounds, musing over what it all means. This is the type of leverage that
our President understands and uses to keep others from focusing on whatever it
was upon which they intended to focus. Once he gets something he wanted,
President Trump is then free to grant the other side a 'give'. No 'give'
without a 'get'.
2. No negotiation is over until all parties agree it
is over. The President understands that everything is on the table until
a deal is done. Just because something is agreeable on Tuesday does not mean
that it is still agreeable on Thursday. Any deal, especially a complex
international deal, is dynamic. As constituent parts change, so too can the
deal points. This is fundamental concept in business - fundamental and
accepted - yet in politics it seems to be seen as evidence of insanity.
3. If reality can be described as the state of tension that
exists between chaos and order, and I think that it is as reasonable a
description as any, then an aversion to chaos is reality avoidance.
Avoiding reality is, by definition, delusional. This explains, in part,
how half of our country (and much of the world) can ignore the reality that our
domestic policies, international relations and agreements, trade deals, and
attitudes toward illegal immigration are leading this nation toward an
inflection point that no one will very much like. President Trump
understands that no one can avoid chaos any more than he or she can avoid
reality. Chaos propels us forward, leaving behind a wake that becomes
history. Order is established to effectively live in that wake.
4. Use leverage. Create more leverage. Keep the
other side off balance. Amen.
5. During my years working internationally, I had to
endure a lot of nonsensical bloviating by my European colleagues about a wide
range of things. Gun ownership. Global warming. The great value of
diversity and immigration. The relative charms of Islam. The
exported villainy of the USA. The list was endless. Whenever I pushed
back, even a little, I was derided as though I were too foolish to understand
big concepts. Most of the first world react to Americans in much the same
manner. Finally, with President Trump, we have a man who understand that
others' opinion of him is none of his business. Our President has no plans to
squander the leverage at his disposal that should be, and of right ought to be,
employed to get what comports with "America First".
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