Other than his business empire and his presidencies, Donald Trump is probably best known for his TV show, “The Apprentice,” and his book, “Art of the Deal.” The latter is still used to describe Trump’s approach to matters in the political and military world since he walked down the stairs at Trump Tower in 2015.
The art of the deal, as described in his ghost-written book of the same name, consists of five parts: Think Big, Use Your Leverage, Protect the Downside, Maximize the Options, and Fight Back.
When it comes to Donald 47, he is certainly thinking big by using tariffs to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. and by bombing the hell out of Iran to create a new Middle East. (The latter may be to protect and advance his and his son-in-law’s business interests in the region, but I’ll leave that discussion for another day).
Forget tariffs for the moment. They appear to have failed in their goal, but Iran is a more serious matter that also seems to have failed in its goal, as defined by President Trump several different times in several different ways. Now, however, the Iran issue all comes down to opening the Strait of Hormuz to get oil flowing as it did before the war and to ending Iran’s nuclear ambitions. (Even though the war was started as a mission for regime change….)
After nine weeks of a ceasefire following two months of bombing by the U.S., Iran and the president agreed to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on those two issues, plus sanctions relief and related economic issues. As a result, a 60-day negotiating window opened this weekend with Vice-President Vance leading a delegation to Switzerland for talks with Iranian representatives.
What Iran has shown since the bombs first fell on their country is an “art of the deal” that outfoxes Trump’s. Unfortunately, Trump’s art of the deal vis-à-vis Iran has boiled down to two things: threatening to drop bombs and dropping bombs. Even with the MOU, Trump is still threatening “bombs away” if Iran doesn’t agree to his terms. I assume the threats are part of Trump’s art of fighting back when things don’t go your way.
The problem is, Iran has always been better at fighting back than we’ve been. Leaders over there don’t have to face elections to survive, and they know full well that Trump and his supporters do — and will, come November. Thus they just drag things out, knowing that Sir Donald and the GOP will have to cave, or manage to sweep everything under the carpet, before facing the voters. Which is actually what Trump did by agreeing to the MOU, which basically rewards Iran for hanging in there.
More than just mastering the waiting game, Iran’s leaders have one-upped (more likely, quadruple-upped) Trump by getting Lebanon included in the peace package. Now, whenever Hezbollah and Israel trade blows, Iran can call a halt to negotiations, or worse, start retaliating. To Iran, any hostilities in Lebanon void the MOU. Voilà — do what they want in response, which is what they did over the weekend by closing the Strait of Hormuz again and refusing to talk to Vance and team.
When all is said and done, and we’re left with a mess in the Strait of Hormuz — Iran charging passage and insurance fees — and with Iran sneaking back into the nuclear-arms game, we as U.S. citizens can echo Trump’s famous TV line, “You’re fired,” to Republicans come November.
I haven’t voted for a Democrat in 45 years, but they look to be the winners in all this.
