My biggest surprise was the total lack of negotiation skills. He just blurts out his position, and expects the other person (Nieto or Turnbull) to just acquiesce. There is literally zero negotiation. Zero effort to find common ground and build rapport. No dangling of other valuable offers, to sway the other person to change their mind/position. Zero. Nada. Zilch. He just blurts out his untenable position, and expects the other person to go, "Oh, well, ok. You win." What a fucking tool.
because I am a scorpion Trump is not a negotiator. He is a reneger. He has a long list of deals that he has come out ahead on by not fulfilling his end of the agreement. His primary goal is to keep face, and both negotiations demonstrate how important it is for him to not lose prestige. He's basically saying "your position makes me look bad" to Nieto and "someone else's position makes me look bad" to Turnbull. That there are intricacies and demands that far eclipse the scope of Trump's prestige is not salient to Trump. The surprising thing to me is how unsurprising these transcripts are. A halfway decent Markov bot with a decent seed could have generated Trump's side of the conversation.You have to see what I am doing. I am unlocking deals that were made by people, these people were incompetent. I am not going to say that it fits within the realm of my Executive Order. We are going to allow 2,000 prisoners to come into our country and it is within the realm of my Executive Order? If that is the case my Executive Order does not mean anything Malcom [sic]. I look like a dope.
A halfway decent Markov bot with a decent seed could have generated Trump's side of the conversation.
The Art of the Deal. Do what I've said for the past two years, or I'll look bad. If you don't agree, I resort to begging til you agree. "But you cannot say that to the press. The press is going to go with that and I cannot live with that." - Donald "Fucking Tool" Trump
Didn't stop Reagan. Reagan had competent, if malicious, staff though.