Donald Trump, love him or hate him, has admittedly been very successful in acquiring great wealth for himself. He never fails to remind anyone within shouting distance that he is the greatest negotiator living today. Without arguing or debating that point, let's look to the root of Trump's negotiating motivation and drive.
Donald Trump has been driven by one overriding consideration and that is the acquisition of money for Donald Trump, since that seems to be Donald's primary, or possibly only means of keeping score of the success of his life.
Without even questioning Trump's skills as a negotiator, it should be remembered that Trump's success has been due to the fact that it was Trump's money that was at stake. That's a mighty motivator in itself. Trump has never indicated that his negotiations were on behalf of others, in addition to himself, like partners or shareholders.
People tend to take greater care and apply higher skills when their own money and reputation is at stake. Since we know that Trump has an ego as large as all outdoors, it is reasonable to assume that Trump's success in part or in the whole, has been due to the fact that his negotiating outcomes have all been driven by his own self interest to increase his personal wealth with the absolute certainty of controlling all that wealth without oversight by others. Again, Trump has never said he was negotiating on behalf of others, thus we must assume that Trump's driving motivation to succeed in business negotiations then, was to increase his own personal wealth as much as possible.
The question that should concern Americans inclined to support Trump is simple. How can Trump's negotiating skills, designed and developed expressly to increase his own personal wealth, translate into successes for America as he engages foreign nations in negotiating a myriad of agreements on behalf of America? What can Trump possibly get out of negotiating with foreign governments that does not result in his own personal wealth acquisition? Are Trump's commercial negotiating skills then transferrable to negotiating on behalf of America? I argue they are exclusive of each other and not necessarily related.
As large as Trump's ego is, one might be inclined to say that Trump would be negotiating to further enhance his reputation and legacy as the world's greatest negotiator. But, would Trump's ego based negotiating triumphs translate to solid triumphs for America? We already have a president whose negotiating has been driven, not by money as we have seen in Donald Trump's wealth accrual, but by a gigantic narcissist ego driven to create an historical legacy of success for generations to come. Of course that's a delusion in Obama's mind and not related to reality that the normal range of thinking
I question whether Donald Trump's vaunted business negotiating skills will translate in successfully negotiating with foreign governments resulting in agreements in which Trump has no personal vested financial interest. It just doesn't fit Donald Trump's method of operation to date. Again, the alternative is that Trump would be negotiating out of ego as a capstone and testament to his life. And that leads to my greatest fear that Donald Trump would, in the end, be just another Barack Obama seeking to fulfill his monumental ego as we have seen over the past seven years.
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