Words Do Matter

December 23, 2016

As a trained business person, I am fascinated by President-elect Trump’s negotiating tactics via Twitter. In the spirit of full disclosure, I do not tweet. His style is to make his adversaries nervous by his own unpredictability. He has already bragged that he didn’t mean many of the things he said on the campaign trail. I assume this is part of the art of the deal. I have not read the book. He has gone after Carrier, Lockheed, Boeing, China, the Palestinians, the Chinese, and the Russians. This has been somewhat amusing to watch until yesterday when he started tweeting about restarting a nuclear arms race. His public comments about nuclear proliferation, and the use of nuclear weapons are well-documented.

His negotiating style may have been effective when he was going up against contractors, developers, suppliers, government officials, banks, and others. It was typically a negotiation between unequals, and not equals. He who has the gold makes the rules, as it were. Deploying simplistic negotiating tactics against foreign powers, however, is a completely different ball game. Contractors, suppliers, and bankers can always walk away from the negotiating table as could Mr. Trump. If there was a misunderstanding, the only thing that got hurt was the deal. However, what happens if a foreign government misreads Trump? What if they call his bluff? Will they up the ante? Will Trump back down or double down? Will he inadvertently get himself into a face-losing situation.

Words do matter. Experience and expertise do matter. Sophistication and nuance matter. I for one do not want to get into a nuclear confrontation because Mr. Trump thinks he is negotiating with the local union.