Victor Davis Hanson: Trump and 'The Art' of the 'Troll'

The Daily Signal Podcast

The Daily Signal

News, Government, Politics, Daily News

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this edition of The Daily Signal’s “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Hanson delves into former President Donald Trump's negotiation techniques, which critics call “trolling.” Hanson discusses how Trump's strategies, as described in 'The Art of the Deal,' play out in various geopolitical scenarios: renaming the Gulf of Mexico, purchasing Greenland, renegotiating the Panama Canal Treaty, and making Canada a state: “In the case of renaming the Gulf of Mexico, the Mexican president showed a map recently of the southwest of the United States being part of Mexico. That was her counter. That's kind of a bad troll, because they rely on $63 billion of remittances.” The discussion emphasizes Trump's approach of making extreme demands to gain an upper hand and highlights the irony in how he uses left-wing arguments against their proponents. Tune in to understand the intricate dynamics of Trump's methods and their implications on international relations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The traditional exegesis of all of these is that he's trolling. Go back to the art of the deal,
0:05.7	a ghostwritten book, the comeback, etc. The art of the deal too. In that Trump exegesis, he says,
0:13.3	when you go into a room to negotiate, you just seem wild and demand 100 percent. Through the negotiation,
0:19.1	the other party starts to make demands on you reciprocally.
0:22.9	And then finally, you feel like you've been put upon and you walk out of the room with a 55 or 60%
0:29.1	advantage. And then you never make fun of the person. You praise them. We've seen it with
0:33.7	North Korea in the first Trump term.
0:49.3	Thank you. seeing it with North Korea in the first Trump term. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal. I want to talk today very briefly about the matter of Trump trolling.
0:54.5	I'm kind of smiling because a lot of people don't know what to make of it.
0:58.4	It concerns four topics, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America, assuming control of Greenland or Binet, I should say, renegotiating the Panama Canal Treaty with the idea that either
1:14.5	they reform the Panamanians or we take acquisition of it, and then of course making Canada a particular
1:21.5	state. The traditional exegesis of all of these is that he's trolling. And in reference to that, go back to the
1:29.6	art of the deal, a ghostwritten book, the art of the comeback, et cetera, the art of the deal too.
1:36.2	And in that Trump ex-is-Jesus, he says, when you go into a room to negotiate, you just seem
1:42.4	wild and demand 100%.
1:45.0	And then through the negotiation, the other party starts to make demands on you reciprocally.
1:51.0	And then finally you feel like you've been put upon and you walk out of the room with a 55 or 60% advantage.
1:59.0	And then you never make fun of the person, you praise them.
2:02.8	We've seen it with North Korea in the first Trump term.
2:07.1	So under that logic, Donald Trump is telling Canada, well, you don't spend any money to defend
2:12.6	yourself, so to speak, you're under the American nuclear umbrella and the trade imbalance is not fair
2:22.3	because you have tariffs on our goods that we don't have on yours and yet you won't patrol
	...

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