“Deals Galore” Coming This Fall

Looks like the “Fab Four” – China, North Korea, Iran, and the Taliban — are queuing up just as we wrote about earlier this week,

Deals Galore? 

We also wonder if the Administration is on the verge of a “deals galore” flurry with, say, China, North Korea, Iran, and the Taliban (“the Fab Four”) before the election?  We are perplexed by, and the way John Bolton exited the White House yesterday,

And as impulsive and unpredictable as the president’s actions may be, firing Mr. Bolton reveals a certain consistency in Mr. Trump’s worldview: Though attracted to never-been-done theatrics like bringing the Taliban to Camp David or meeting with Mr. Kim, the president is also moored by suspicion of military adventures and has a huge appetite for deals.

What Mr. Trump really wants from his foreign policy is a diplomatic victory as he heads into his 2020 re-election campaign. — NY Times, Sept 10th

Why do we have that sinking feeling the “Fab Four” are licking their chops and looking at each other, thinking

Time to feast!    – GMM, Sept 12th

New York Magazine out with a must-read piece today (Hat tip:  ThinkInTheMorning).

The following are the money quotes but make sure to click on an read the entire article.

• President Trump has not given up on his idea that the week marking the 18th anniversary of 9/11 should also be let’s-make-deals-with-thugs week
•  Kim Jong-un’s displeasure had been part of his thinking in firing national security adviser John Bolton
•  the last straw for Bolton was his strenuous objection to Trump’s plan for a secret Camp David summit with Taliban and Afghan leaders
• those regimes won’t forget the aborted Taliban summit — and the lessons it provided on Trump’s negotiating tactics — so easily
• Inviting Taliban leaders to Camp David in spite of this tells foreign adversaries that a body count is no impediment to dealmaking with Trump
• It appears a major reason the Camp David summit was hastily arranged in recent weeks — and fell apart even more quickly — was Trump’s desire to put his own stamp on a deal that negotiators had been working on for a nearly a year
• The lesson here for foreign leaders is that if you want a deal with Trump, deal with Trump. The president apparently cut the National Security Council — whose entire reason for existing is to coordinate across government agencies — and most of the government out of his plan to hug it out with the Taliban
• Both Tehran and Pyongyang will look at what emerged over the weekend and see how desperate Trump is for splashy deals, and the accompanying photo ops
• It has been clear for weeks now that a funny shuttle diplomacy has been taking place between Washington and Tehran
• All of which suggests the drama surrounding Trump’s aborted Taliban summit and Bolton’s sudden exit were just the back-to-school preview for a fall of Trump-style diplomacy, in which personality is everything, the U.S. diplomatic infrastructure is near-irrelevant, and a soupçon of violence just might help your case.
• Buckle up  – NY Magazine, Sept 13

Quadruple Fracking Yikes!

This is a very disturbing article.

The “Fab Four” are lining up and preparing to feast on a politically desperate, unprepared and ignorant president, who thinks he  “knows more than…the Generals.”

One would think the body politic and markets would see right through this.  That is the cutting of meaningless “all show and no dough” Potemkin deals, especially after all the economic and diplomatic carnage that Trump’s posturing has brought upon the country and the world.   But nothing surprises us anymore.

Just wave that flag.

Primus inter pares

The U.S. position, both economically and diplomatically, would have been so much stronger had the country remained in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the original Iran deal.   America will be weaker and less safe with these deals if realized.

First among equals (primus inter pares), always trumps America First, in our book.

No surprise, however, The Art of the Deal, since the administration has come to power, has repeatedly shown that it is driven by impulse with no strategy,  all sizzle, no steak and no gain, all pain.