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Donald Trump’s reputation and political career were built on his business acumen, but the president continues to demonstrate that he is a poor negotiator.
Time and time again over the past nine years, Trump has been surrounded by colleagues during high-profile exchanges. North Korea, Russia, Russia again, Chinaand China again they have defeated the United States. Trump has been forced to return to Washington with little to show for it other than empty talk of friendship with whatever dictator has surrounded him. He has had some success in brokerage deals while acting as a third party (although not nearly as much). he pretends) but very unfortunate when his government is a participant. The only exception came when he was negotiating with himself, getting his own rule set up Fund of 1.8 billion dollars to his political allies.
The latest example of Trump’s recklessness is Iran. Let’s go through the last few days: Trump has been published on Saturday that he was close to making a deal with Tehran that would end the war it started earlier this year and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. When the outline of the agreement began to emerge, it looked incomplete and ugly: Trump had put off negotiating. more difficult issues– things, like nuclear weapons, that drove him to war – instead of opening the strait, which was open before Trump went to war. Trump’s hawkish allies immediately criticized the plan, and despite that to turn back history from Trump’s aides, the president had begun backing up claims of a closer agreement by Sunday. “If I make a deal with Iran, it will be good and proper, not like the one made by Obama,” he said has been published. “Our contract is the exact opposite, but no one has seen it, or knows what it is. It hasn’t even been fully negotiated yet.” Yesterday, in a sign that a deal may not be close at all, the US military carried out what it called “defensive strikes” against Iranian targets – directly contradicting the administration’s previous claims to have eliminated any threats to the US in Iran.
The situation shows a few reasons that Trump is a bad negotiator. My colleagues Tom Nichols and Robert Kagan all have written illuminating articles on the specific inherent or potential failures of any deal with Iran. But the incident also shows structural problems with the president’s attitude.
First, Trump is not prepared. Some successful presidents (Dwight Eisenhower, George HW Bush) came to the White House with a history of deep involvement in public affairs and foreign relations, which made them ready to handle sensitive foreign negotiations. Others brought a formidable work ethic and ruthless intelligence (Barack Obama, Bill Clinton). Both types surround themselves with smart advisors whose input they take seriously. Trump is 0 for 3 on these terms, which is one reason he wrote about the risk of Iran closing the strait in the first place: He is both surrounded by aides less qualified than past presidents and refuses to heed their advice. A similar failure of preparation extends to frontline negotiators. Even after many of its top officials were killed in the war, Iran has maintained a group of hard-nosed diplomats who have long been involved in foreign policy. Trump, by contrast, has sent a real estate friend and his son-in-law. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, perhaps the most informed of Trump’s aides, has been largely invisible.
Second, as the roller-coaster weekend shows, Trump is mercurial. Basing someone’s contentiousness on a conversation is ridiculous, but Trump doesn’t seem to have any basis in his own mind. He has ever cycle through various points for war, including regime change and halting Iran’s nuclear program, but it has not reached one. Missing the goal in war means also missing the goal in peace talks. Iran can use that to its advantage, but even if its leaders are willing to make a deal, they will certainly be reluctant to agree to anything that requires a lot of faith, because Trump can change his mind at any time, as has appeared to happen amid fierce Republican opposition in recent days.
Third, Trump really wants a deal, and everyone knows it. His bad thinking has led to the bankruptcy of the company and cheap sales in the business, and he is in a similar situation now. Every conflict between democracy and democracy (however this can be volatile) is incongruous: Trump should be concerned about public opinion, where Iran’s leaders have shown not only that they do not care about the suffering of their people; they are ready to kill them by the thousands. But as the war continues with no positive resolution in sight, and the US economy seems to be faltering, Trump has seemed to struggle more and more to reach a peace agreement. (The president also seemed eager to have something to show for his weekend, because he he skipped his eldest son’s weddingsupposedly it works.) Iran, sensing Trump’s need for a deal, has been able to maintain a hard line.
All of these factors combine to mean that Trump is ill-equipped to win any negotiation, much less one that results in war. Trump is likely to screw up, as he has done many times in his career, and reach some kind of deal with Iran. He will certainly call it a big win, but the truth will be harder to ignore than it was when Trump’s defeat only hurt his bank accounts.
One of the ironies of Contract Artthe book that built Trump’s reputation as a shrewd businessman, is that Trump himself did not write it. his heretic, Tony Schwartzhe has said that he collected the sound together after sitting on Trump’s elbow while he was doing his daily activities. Unfortunately, it is probably too late for Trump to hire a real expert to handle negotiations with Iran.
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Today’s news
- Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that it would use a “resolute mutual response” against any violation of the ceasefire after the US Central Command said that it carried out an attack yesterday in the south of Iran.
- The South Carolina Senate has a Republican majority blocked a White House-led effort to redraw the state’s congressional map ahead of the midterms, to counter the rollback of President Trump’s retrenchment agenda.
- federal court temporarily prevented Alabama from using the new congressional map which Republicans hoped would help them regain a Democratic-held House seat in the midterms, ordering the state to keep its current districts for now.
Evening Read
Advice I Hope You Never Need
By Zoe Weissman
If you are reading this, chances are you have survived, witnessed, or somehow experienced a school shooting, which is so common in the United States that I felt compelled to write this essay. I myself have experienced two school shootings: first in Parkland, Florida, when I was 12 years old, and then at Brown University when I was 20 years old. When my university met to deal with the tragedy we experienced on December 13, 2025, I found that sharing my previous experiences helped my peers understand and also made me feel better in the process.
Since I was 13 years old, I have been dedicated to fighting to stop gun violence. Now I hope that by sharing what I have learned in the past eight years and being shot twice at school, maybe not one person will feel so alone. If you are in a bad situation to be able to relate to what I went through, I hope these five tips will bring you comfort.
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