By Robert Reich
Trump
promised to be America’s dealmaker in chief.
“We
need a leader that wrote The Art of the Deal,” he said in the speech announcing his candidacy.
“I’m a negotiator. I’ve done very well over the years through negotiation,” he said during a Republican debate.
“That’s what I do, is deals,” he said in May. “I know deals, I think, better than anybody knows deals.”
“I’m a negotiator. I’ve done very well over the years through negotiation,” he said during a Republican debate.
“That’s what I do, is deals,” he said in May. “I know deals, I think, better than anybody knows deals.”
Rubbish.
So far, Trump has made no deals at all, and the ones he thinks he’s made have
unraveled.
He
has no deal with North Korea. Following his June 12 summit with Kim Jong
Un, Trump declared on Twitter that “there is no longer
a nuclear threat” from North Korea.
In
fact, recent satellite images show that North Korea has
upgraded a nuclear facility. It also appears to be finalizing the expansion of a
ballistic missile manufacturing site.
Instead
of surrendering its nuclear stockpile, American intelligence says North Korea is considering ways to conceal it
at secret production facilities.
As
if to drive home the point that there’s been no deal, just after Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo visited Pyongyang to start filling in the “nitty-gritty
details” of Kim’s vague commitment, the North accused the Trump administration
of pushing a “unilateral and gangster-like demand for denuclearization,”
calling it “deeply regrettable.”
Maybe.
But Kim got everything he wanted from the summit – an American president
appearing to grant North Korea co-equal status, and cancellation of joint
military exercises with South Korea – without conceding anything on weapons and
missile programs.
Trump
has no trade deals, either. Instead, he’s launched simultaneous trade
wars with Europe, China, Canada, and Mexico.
After
slapping tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports, China has retaliated with
tariffs on $34 billion of American exports. Trump is now threatening tariffs on
nearly everything China exports to the United States, as well as a clampdown on
Chinese investment here.
After
Trump raised tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada, Mexico, and the
European Union, they also retaliated. They promise further retaliation if Trump
acts on his threat to place a 20 percent tariff on imported cars and car parts.
Are
these Trump’s negotiating tactics? “Every country is calling every day, saying,
let’s make a deal, let’s make a deal,” he boasted last week.
More
rubbish. Trump’s actions have poisoned relations to such an extent that instead
of joining the United States to, say, push China to open its markets, our
trading partners – including China – are starting to join together to stop
Trump from doing worse damage.
Meanwhile,
talks to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada
are dead, partly because Trump’s bullying has generated so much animosity
across our two neighbors’ borders.
Trump
has no deal on Iran, either. No deal on Syria. No deal on the Qatar blockade.
No deal on Israel and the Palestinians.
Trump
will soon meet with Vladimir Putin – with no agenda.
Over
the past few weeks, Trump has given away his bargaining leverage with Putin,
anyway. He’s called for Russia to be readmitted to the Group of 7 industrial powers,
suggested it has a legitimate claim to Crimea because a lot of Russian speakers
live there, and expressed more doubts about whether Moscow meddled in the 2016
presidential election.
Trump
has no deal on climate change. He simply pulled out of the Paris accords.
No
deal with the Group of 7 leading economic powers. He merely refused to sign the communiqué his own team had
agreed to. And no deal with NATO countries on increasing their military
spending.
“No
deal” also describes Trump’s relations with the Republican Congress.
He
got no deal on replacing the Affordable Care Act, so Trump is quietly repealing
it administratively. At least 5 million people will lose
coverage.
No
deal on gun control. After the Parkland shooting, Trump promised to tighten background checks for gun
buyers and said he’d consider raising the age for buying certain types of guns.
He subsequently gave up, bowing to the NRA.
No
deal on DACA or immigration, despite Trump’s promises. No budget deal, despite
his assertions.
The
tax deal wasn’t really Trump’s – it was a deal between the Republican Senate
and Republican House, with Trump bloviating from the sidelines.
One
of the biggest cons from the biggest conman to occupy the Oval Office is that
he’s a dealmaker.
He’s
not. All he really knows is how to bully friends, stage photo ops with enemies,
and claim victory.
Robert
B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of
California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing
Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for
which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries
of the twentieth century. He has written fifteen books, including the best
sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations," and "Beyond
Outrage," and, his most recent, "The Common Good," which is
available in bookstores now. He is also a founding editor of the American
Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary,
"Inequality For All." He's co-creator of the Netflix original
documentary "Saving Capitalism," which is streaming now.
