Behind the display of bravado, Trump must surely have sensed that his approach to foreign policy was catching up with him. His signature style, which involves breaking trust with America’s friends while alternately cozying up to and lashing out at its competitors, rests on a notion central to his self-conception: the deal.
As dealmaker in chief, Trump has turned U.S. trade negotiations into a series of deals, haggled with Nvidia and AMD on China exports so America could get in on the deal, and called an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement the “ultimate deal.” He covets the Nobel Peace Prize, ostensibly as a tribute to his dealmaking prowess.
