Trump messes up “The Art of the Deal”
An updated version of “The Apprentice,” the reality TV show — infamous for Donald Trump’s line “YOU’RE FIRED,” was staged in the Oval Office Friday by JD Vance, our punk VP, and our chaotic president was dumber than dumb in terms of deal-making.
After more than 60 years in business, I’ve learned business is hard enough when you are doing deals with good guys, but almost always a loser when you are doing business with bad guys.
The duo lost control of their emotions, played to their MAGA base and shattered the U.S. relationship with Ukraine, and possibly Europe, by ambushing its president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Recall that Trump fictionalized his business success in his ghost-written biography, “The Art of the Deal,” but showed Friday night that he’s a grandstanding inept deal-maker.
He was supposed to be negotiating a deal for Ukraine’s precious minerals in return for continued U.S. support of the invaded country.
They trashed and over-talked an heroic leader who has put his life on the line for his country – a good guy representing a fledgling democracy. In the process, they took another fatal step toward a deal with a truly bad guy by any historical standards: Vladimir Putin.
MAGA cult believers applauded their bully-in-chief after he humiliated Zelenskyy with the press in attendance and the cameras rolling. He humiliated an ally in front of the whole world, and he and Vance knew they were doing so. It was premeditated.
Trump verbally abused his White House guest with his customary blunderbuss of words and distortions. Does he ever shut up? He cited $350 billion in aid to Ukraine during the three-year war. Can he count to 20 with his shoes on? Our subsidies have been about half of that and less than one-third was for weapons, old pieces from our warehouses.
No, I never read his BS book; nor will I. Another thing about successful deal-making; you have listen to your counter-party. You have listen very carefully to where the other guy is coming from and what he or she really wants. Only then can you have a meeting of the minds and put together a fruitful deal.
It’s hard to listen when you’re motor-mouthing, attacking and putting the other guy down.
Let’s talk some deal realities, which Zelensky was trying to do before Vance, a mini-me bully, accused him of disrespect and ingratitude to America. Remember that the Ukrainian leader had stood in front of the American Congress to profusely thank the American people for their support and asked for a long-term continuing relationship.
Vance had it backwards. He was the peddler of disrespect and ingratitude for Ukraine’s defense of its nationhood and dealing crippling blows to Russia’s military and economy. Vance, who never made sergeant in four years in the U.S. Marine Corps (hard to not do) has failed to understand that Russia is our biggest enemy and is now lining up with China, our other major adversary, Iran and North Korea.
More about deal-making: before you get in bed with a new business partner, you always do a credit check. Can they pay their bills? Can they deliver the goods?
In the case of Russia, the answer is a resounding “No.” Its economy, which is largely based on the extraction of oil and gas and defense spending is in tough shape. It has little innovation, the real ticket to prosperity.
Its inflation rate is 9.5% and interest rates there have soared above 20%. That would bring down an American president.
More than 300,000 of its best and brightest citizens have fled the country. Millions of its most creative people have been suppressed and gagged. Most Western companies have abandoned their operations in Russia.
Would you start or acquire a business in Putin’s autocratic oligarchy? Confiscation of profitable businesses is routine. (I looked at investing in a business there with a friend a while back and decided “No way.” Ivan, its entrepreneur, later emigrated to Canada.)
Big picture on Russia as a partner versus Europe and NATO: the Russian economy has a gross domestic product (GDP) of about $2 trillion per year, puny compared to Europe at about $20 trillion and the U.S. at $30 trillion. Why do business with a loser country? (Footnote: Ukraine is about $130 billion.)
Yet that is exactly what Trump and Vance are doing. They are cutting a deal with a loser, a bad guy, a war criminal who endorses rape and extreme torture of prisoners and innocents by his troops as everyday tools of war; who orchestrated the kidnapping of 20,000 Ukrainian children; who bombed civilian residences, hospitals and schools; and who never honored a deal he signed.
Long and short; the U.S. president (not my president) is jettisoning our long-standing deals with Europe and Ukraine and is heading to an historical deal with a loser, Vladimir Putin, his professed idol.
One more immutable lesson about deals: always deal with a guy who has the final decision-making authority. Trump cut Zelenskyy and Europe out of his initial deal-making efforts. Duh, big mistake!
Trump promised on the campaign trail that he would use his self-proclaimed wizardry to end the invasion/war in Ukraine in 24 hours. It’s been five weeks, and the dynamic duo of Vance and Trump has put a cease-fire or lasting peace far out of sight. Trump is trying to cover his butt by throwing Zelenskyy under the bus.
Trump’s ass-backwards deal-making may doom his presidency. He did not run on parting with Europe and sabotaging Ukraine. He won by the narrowest of margins, and he is eroding his credibility as president with each major blunder.
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Torinus is a former U.S. Marine artillery officer, who holds a master’s degree in business and international relations from the University of Stockholm and runs a startup venture fund.