The Illusion of Strategy

The misguided notion that Donald Trump is a masterful negotiator and businessman stems from his own self-promotional book, “The Art of the Deal,” which was actually ghostwritten by journalist Tony Schwartz. Mr.Schwartz spent 18 months embedded with Donald Trump in order to write the book, which would go on to create a powerful, albeit entirely fictional, myth around Trump’s business acumen. In writing his book, the ghostwriter took a man who was naturally aggressive, easily bored and hyper-reactive, and packaged those traits as an inspirational example for mass-marketing. Schwartz applies the vocabulary of a structured, strategic business approach to what was essentially impulsive, erratic, and slightly nutty behavior. Mr. Schwartz has since spoken extensively about the writing process — his account strongly supports the idea that Trump’s unpredictability in business negotiations is the result of a short attention span and extreme self-absorption, rather than calculated genius.

If you labor under the misconception that Donald Trump has a coherent “Madman Theory” of diplomacy for his Iran negotiations, Mr. Schwartz suggests that Donald Trump is not a grand master playing three-dimensional chess; rather, he’s a man who throws the chess pieces at the wall out of frustration, while an entire industry of pundits, think tanks, pollsters, and Fox News “analysts” wade in after the fact to explain why breaking the chessboard was actually a masterful opening gambit. Disabuse yourself of illusion: Trump’s “strategy” is merely a rationalization of his natural personality defects.